Soldatino
by Siobhan Daley
Summary: Shortly after the Second Titan War, a particularly elusive demigod is found and delivered to Camp Half-Blood. It turns out the one giving them so much trouble was a six-year-old boy with nothing by the clothes on his back and the contents of his backpack. His past is obscured by his mutism and the fuzzy memories. His future is even more obscured by the shadows hiding in the light.
1. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood

Nico di Angelo and Percy Jackson returned to camp after almost two weeks, having finally succeeded in recruiting a new demigod the satyrs had been struggling to track down. At the Big House, Chiron and Mr. D sat in the porch playing pinochle. When the centaur spotted the boys, he set his cards down and turned his wheelchair to greet them. "Welcome back, boys. You took a bit longer than we expected."

"Sorry about that, Chiron," Percy apologized, "The kid was pretty hard to find. Turns out he moves around constantly."

"So that's why the satyrs were having trouble," Chiron nodded in understanding. The new demigod peeked out at Chiron from behind Nico, then ducked back behind the older boy. "Come on over, child. You're safe here." The boy stepped out and approached Chiron shyly. He was small and pale, with a mess of black hair tucked under a knitted grey hat. Chiron mused, "Goodness, you're quite a bit younger than I thought you'd be. How old are you, young man?" The boy let go of the straps of his dirty green backpack and held up six fingers. "And what's your name?" The child made several quick gestures with his hands, but said nothing.

"We tried talking to him," Percy piped up, "But he won't respond."

Nico snipped at Percy, "He _does_ respond, using those hand signs. He just doesn't talk. Like I said on the way here, he probably can't." The boy nodded vigorously in I affirmation.

"I don't think anyone here knows sign language, Nico."

"That doesn't mean he can't communicate," Chiron reasoned. "Percy, could you dash inside and grab a pen and a notepad? There should be plenty of extras in the office." Percy ran into the Big House and didn't come out for several minutes. "So, Nico, where did you find our new friend?" Chiron asked to pass the time.

"We found him in a supermarket deli," Nico replied, sounding bored.

"A deli?" Chiron muttered, "That's not quite what I expected, given how difficult he was to find. No matter. Did you have any trouble convincing his parent to let you bring him here?"

"None at all. He was all by himself."

Chiron's incredulous gaze flicked between the two boys. "He was alone?" Nico nodded. "Where was his family?"

Nico shrugged, "No idea. Nobody came for him when the Laistrygonian on his trail attacked, so I doubt they were around. From what I could understand from this kid, he's been on his own for a while."

"Is this true, young man?" Chiron asked the boy, his voice filled with pity. The boy only nodded silently in reply. "Oh dear. I wish we'd located you sooner. A child as young as you shouldn't be left alone in this world, especially a demigod. At least you're here now." The boy gave a small half-smile and a tiny nod.

Percy finally emerged from the Big House, pen and notepad in hand. "Sorry I took so long. Mr. D really needs to hire a maid or something. That office is a disaster."

"Quite." Chiron took the items, "Thank you, Percy." He then handed them to the new boy. "Take these. You can use these to write out whatever you want to say if you want to have a conversation with someone. Does that work for you?"

The boy uncapped his pen and wrote on the pad a clumsy ' _yes.'_ The 's' was written backwards.

"Very good. Let's try the introductions again. I'm Chiron, and these two are Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo. What's your name?"

The boy's misspelled response surprised everyone: ' _dont no.'_

"You don't know your name?" Percy asked this time.

The boy shook his head. ' _cant reember,'_ he wrote clumsily, ' _bin long time sense i use it.'_ Despite the terrible spelling and incredibly clumsy letters, they all understood his message well enough.

"I see," Chiron muttered, stroking his beard in thought. "What would you like to be called, then?"

The nameless boy looked at the ground for a moment, then looked at Chiron and shrugged.

The centaur sighed and decided, "I suppose it can wait. We can work out a name for you tomorrow. Dinner will be starting soon, so getting you settled in is more pressing. One of you two, could you escort him down to Cabin Eleven, please?" The boy's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "Cabin Eleven is dedicated to the god Hermes," Chiron explained, "All demigods live there until their parent claims them." The boy nodded like he understood, but his face remained crunched up, though if it was out of confusion or displeasure, none of them were sure. "Well, off you go. I'll see you at the dining pavilion." With that, he wheeled himself into the Big House.

"Come on, kid," Percy said with a smile, "Let's get you down to the cabins. I'll show you some cool stuff along the way. The boy didn't approach Percy. Instead, he stayed close to Nico.

"Go on," Nico nudged him a little, "Go with Percy." The boy shook his head and grabbed Nico's sleeve.

Percy sighed, "You really don't like me, do you?" He then smirked at Nico, "I guess I'm not-"

"Don't." Nico gave Percy a pointed glare and turned towards the rest of camp. "Come on, kid. I'll take you to the cabins."

As they walked, the boy would point at nearly everything, from nymphs and satyrs to weapon racks and activity areas. Nico would tell him what they were, but did so with as few words as he could get away with. When they reached the ring of cabins, the boy seemed somewhat awestruck by all the buildings, especially the ones dedicated to Zeus and Hera at the very end, standing tall and magnificent. He looked up at Nico, excitement sparkling in his black eyes. Nico then directed him to a somewhat shabby-looking brown cabin with a caduceus hanging on the door. Cabin Eleven.

The boy tilted his head, his excitement somewhat dimmed. He looked up to Nico as if asking for an explanation.

"This is Cabin Eleven. Chiron just told you this is where you'll be living for now."

The front door burst open and a stream of Hermes campers poured out, though judging by the raucous laughter from inside, there was still quite a large number of people within the cabin. The boy's eyes grew large and he hastily scribbled something on his notepad. He tugged on Nico's sleeve and showed him the message, ' _pleaze no.'_

Nico felt bad for the kid. He didn't need it spelled out to see how scared the boy was of living with the Hermes kids. "Sorry, kid. It's just how things work around here. New and unclaimed demigods have to stay in Hermes cabin."

' _can i stey with yuo?'_

"Sorry, no. It's against camp rules." Seeing the kid's sad, anxious face, Nico sighed, "I'll tell you what. See that black building right over there?" Nico pointed at his cabin, "That's where I live. You can come visit during free time, okay? We can find games to play, or something." The boy bowed his head and nodded reluctantly, but the frown on his face said he still wasn't happy about living in Hermes. Nico guided him up to the door and was about to knock when the door opened again. The camper on the other side seemed surprised to see the son of Hades standing on their porch. "Are the Stolls here?" Nico asked without missing a beat. "I've got a new camper for you guys."

The Hermes boy looked down at the new boy. "A little young, isn't he?"

Nico shrugged. "The monsters didn't seem to think so."

"Oh," the Hermes camper said dumbly, unable to think of anything else to say. "Well, come on in, kid. I'll take you to meet Travis and Connor. They'll find you a spot in here somewhere." The boy cast Nico another pleading glance, begging with his eyes to not be left in this cabin.

"Go on," Nico urged him, "I'll see you at dinner."

* * *

Of course, Nico didn't mention to the new boy that they weren't supposed to sit at the same table. They had to sit with their cabins, meaning the kid would be stuck at the overcrowded Hermes table, and Nico would be sitting alone as usual.

But he didn't know that.

When the Hermes campers arrived with their typical fanfare of loud voices, the new boy made his way over to Nico's table and sat down with him.

"Hey, kid," Nico greeted him, ignoring the table rules. The boy greeted him with a wave, dead silent as always. "You get settled in okay?"

The boy glanced at the Hermes table out of the corner of his eyes then scribbled, ' _ther crazy. i hope i get clamed.'_

That particular misspelling put quite an odd visual in Nico's head involving shellfish, but he knew what the kid meant. "You will," he assured him, "Eventually. Why don't you run up to the buffet table up there and grab yourself some food?" Nico suggested, "And make sure to drop a little bit into that big fire over there. It's for the gods." The boy seemed a bit confused as to why they were supposed to burn perfectly good food, but shrugged and appeared to accept it. Nico watched as he scampered away with his plate.

"Aww, how cute," said a voice Nico knew very, very well.

"Go away, Percy."

"I'm serious, Nico," the son of Poseidon rested his hand on Nico's table and grinned at him, "It's freakin' adorable how you and the new kid are so attached to each other already. It's not every day that the son of Hades takes a liking to someone. Especially a little kid."

"Leave. Me. Alone."

"Oh, don't be so snippy. I just want to understand why you're being so nice to him, that's all. It's weird for you."

Nico glared at Percy, deciding whether to use his fork to stab his food or his friend. Eventually, he wound up stabbing the chicken. "I just feel for the kid, you know?" he mumbled, "I guess he kinda reminds me of me."

Percy leaned to the side, trying to get a glimpse at the boy. "Really? I guess your coloring is kinda similar, but-"

"That's not what I meant. I mean that he's a clueless little kid and he's all alone, like I was." Nico poked at his chicken halfheartedly. "With the way he's clung to me since we picked him up, I feel kind of responsible for him, I guess. It would feel wrong to push him away."

Percy's grin grew wider. "Well look at that! You do have a heart after all. And here comes your little buddy. See ya later!" Percy wandered away to his own table right as the new boy returned to the table with his food.

"Did you sacrifice some of it in the fire?" Nico asked as soon as he sat down. The boy nodded. "Good. The gods can be a bit fussy, so they might get offended if you forget. Keep that in mind."

The boy nodded in understanding. Then, he scrawled out another note to Nico, ' _who is yuor perent?'_

At first, Nico didn't want to tell him. Nobody liked anything to do with his father, including Nico himself, much of the time. Still, he felt compelled to answer. Maybe this boy wouldn't care. "Hades," he eventually said.

' _who htat?'_ the boy wrote back.

"He's the god of the Underworld."

' _is he nice?'_

Nico wasn't sure to answer that question. The quick answer was no, but that was probably something he shouldn't say out loud. Fortunately, he didn't have to answer, because Chiron showed up right then.

"Good evening, boys," he greeted them, "Enjoying your dinner?"

"Sure," Nico mumbled while the boy gave an enthusiastic nod.

"Good, good." Chiron looked down at the new boy and said, "Come with me, young man. You need to sit at the right table."

The boy stayed put and gave Chiron a look that clearly expressed his intent to stay.

"Campers aren't allowed to sit at tables that don't belong to their godly parent," Chiron explained gently, "So, until you've been claimed, you have to sit with the Hermes campers, just like how you have to stay in their cabin."

The boy turned and wrote on his notepad, ' _i dont went to. i went to stey wiht Nico.'_

"I understand," Chiron said gently, but sternly, "But I'm afraid it's against the rules. Come on, let's go back to your table."

Begrudgingly, he picked up his plate and trudged over to the Hermes table with Chiron. The old centaur lurked for a while to make sure he stayed where he was supposed to, and wandered away once he was confident the child would stay with his cabin. The moment Chiron was out of sight, he picked his plate back up and ran back to Nico.

Nico stared at the younger boy in mild surprize, slightly amused that he would so quickly and blatantly defy Chiron. "You know, you'll probably get in trouble if Chiron sees that you came back."

The boy scribbled, ' _no. Kyron is nice. he wudent punesh me.'_

Nico chuckled at the note. He had to admit, the kid had confidence. "Well, I won't make you leave."

Chiron did come back and make the little guy go back to the Hermes table. Twice. He was about to move him back a third time, but he and Nico finished eating and left before he could.

* * *

By bedtime, Nico was ready for it. He was ready for the rest of camp to be quiet and for everyone else to be fast asleep. It was peaceful.

Lights-out was at 11:00. That meant everyone was either asleep or on their way to dreamland. At 11:30, Nico was about to get in bed himself when he heard a knock on his door. For a moment, he thought he had imagined it, but then he heard it again. Confused, he opened the door, and there stood the new camper in his blue pajamas, dotted with bright yellow duckies.

"What are you doing out?" Nico hissed quietly, "Didn't anyone tell you that the harpies will rip apart anyone out after curfew? Go to bed!" The kid didn't respond in any way. He merely stood, looking up at Nico with an expectant smile. "Go back to your cabin! You're not supposed to be here. Go! Before the harpies spot you!" He didn't move. The two stared at each other for a solid minute, then Nico caved. "Alright, fine. Get in here." The boy walked in, looking quite pleased. Nico sighed, "You _do_ know you're not supposed to sleep here, right?"

' _I no,'_ he scribbled, ' _but i wamt to be heer.'_

Nico didn't feel like arguing. He already knew the boy had no desire to be with the Hermes group, and would not be convinced to go back. "Yeah, whatever. Pick whichever bunk you want. I'm the only one living here."

The boy happily sat upon the bed nearest to Nico's, as if he were a cat declaring it MINE.

"Are you always this uncooperative?"

The boy shrugged and wrote lazily, ' _wen my instinks say so.'_

"What's that supposed to mean? Don't your parents ever scold you for disobeying them?"

' _mom is gone.'_

His mind clouded by drowsiness, Nico almost asked where his mother went, but then he realized what the kid had said. She was _gone._ "Oh," he said sadly, "So that's why you were alone when we found you." The boy nodded. "Can I ask what happened?"

He wrote for a few minutes, then handed the notepad to Nico. ' _monstrs. mom hide me in a dumster adn sayed to run awey wen htey wer gone. mom left and thye folowed her. i ran. nveer saw mom agen.'_

Nico took a few moments to read the note due to the misspellings and switched-around letters. Once he understood, he stared at the clumsy words blankly. "That's… Wow. I'm sorry. That must've been hard on you."

The boy took the notepad back and wrote, ' _yes. i was skared for hte frst few munths but i got ust to it.'_

Nico re-read the line a few times just to be sure he was reading it correctly. "First few _months_?" The boy nodded. "Wait, how long have you been on your own?"

The boy's eyebrows scrunched together as he tried to count on his fingers. He shrugged and scribbled, ' _i was 5.'_

With every new fragment of his story, Nico felt worse for the kid. "You've been fending for yourself for an entire year?"

' _mor i tink. my birtday is in janyuarie.'_

It was almost the end of August. That meant this little kid had been living on the streets and running from monsters for a over year and a half, all on his own. Suddenly, Nico didn't feel quite as bad about his own early life. At least he had his family until he was ten. "Oh man. I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to go through that for so long. Or at all. You're quite the little soldier." Suddenly reminded of his sister Bianca, he continued, "You know, my sister used to call me that in Italian. 'Il mio soldatino.'"

The boy's eyes lit up and he scribbled, ' _can yuo call me that?'_

"What? Soldatino?" The boy nodded vigorously with a large smile. "Well, if you like it, I don't see why not." The newly-named Soldatino clapped happily. The notoriously grumpy teenager couldn't help but smile a bit at the younger boy's delight. "I think it's time we both went to sleep. If we're lucky, Chiron won't yell at us too much."


	2. He Made the Rules

"This behavior is completely unacceptable," Chiron scolded the two boys after he heard about their little sleepover, "The rules we have exist for a reason. You cannot go around bending and breaking them to suit your own whims. You're lucky none of the gods appear to have taken offense to your actions." Both boys looked away from the irritated centaur with identical grimaces. "Given the circumstances, I'm willing to let you two off with a warning, but from now on, you will stay at your _assigned_ tables and cabins. No more switching, understand?"

The younger boy looked up at the centaur with a sharp glint in his eye and made a quick gesture in sign language that Nico and Chiron both had a feeling was probably quite rude.

"I asked you a question," Chiron said, much more pointedly, "Do you understand me?"

Soldatino glared at the centaur and scribbled on his notepad, ' _im not deaf.'_

"Don't get snippy with me, young man," Chiron replied coolly, "Go get your breakfast, and you will sit at the Hermes table, like you're supposed to." The child stomped away, but the old centaur stopped Nico before he could leave. "Not you. I've got more to talk about with you, Nico."

"What is it?" Nico grumbled.

"First off, I expect you to set a good example for the younger campers. Facilitating the boy's rule breaking-"

"His name is Soldatino," Nico interrupted.

"Pardon?"

"The kid. His name is Soldatino now. He chose it last night while we were talking."

"I see. As I was saying, facilitating Soltino's-"

"Sol _da_ tino."

" _Soldatino's_ rule breaking is unacceptable. If younger campers notice you allowing that kind of behavior, especially since you're a child of one of the Big Three, they may start to think that they can get away with it too, and-"

"It's unacceptable, I get it. I'll keep that in mind next time Soldatino knocks on my door in the middle of the night and refuses to go back to his cabin."

Chiron raised an eyebrow. "Is that what happened?"

"Yeah. He showed up after lights out and wouldn't go back to Hermes. I couldn't let the kid get shredded by the harpies or sleep outside, so I let him in. I tried to get him to go back, but he wouldn't."

"Didn't you explain the rule to him?"

"Yeah. He just said 'I know, but I want to be here.'"

"Gods above," Chiron pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "I didn't expect him to be such a willful child."

"Yeah, that can happen to kids like him."

Chiron looked at Nico quizzically. "What do you mean, 'kids like him'?"

"The kid's been on his own for over a year. He's so used to taking care of himself and following his own instincts that he doesn't let other people tell him what to do."

"How did you find this out?"

"I tried this thing called 'asking.'"

"Watch your tone, young man," Chiron warned. "Regarding the boy, Soldatino, perhaps that explains why he's become so attached to you so quickly. You might remind him of someone in his family-"

"Not likely. His mother was his only family."

"Someone who cared for him while he was-"

"Nope. He didn't make any lasting relationships on the road. We talked about it earlier before we came up here."

Chiron stroked his beard, looking puzzled. "That's a bit of a mystery, then, isn't it? He seems so anxious around anyone else, but not at all around you. It's strange. What could be drawing him to you like that?"

Nico shrugged, "I wouldn't know. Most kids think I'm scary."

Chiron's eyes lit up for a moment, then narrowed. "You mentioned earlier something about how he follows his instincts. That might be it."

"What, he's instinctively drawn to me? _Me_ , of all people?"

"Something like that. What has he acted like since you met him?"

Nico's face scrunched up in confusion. "I dunno. Like a little kid. Weirdly happy. Skittish around other people. He really hates being with the Hermes kids. I think large, loud groups make him anxious or something."

Chiron nodded thoughtfully. "What about his family? What happened to them?"

"He never met his dad, and his mom is probably dead, from what he said."

"So his father is most likely his godly parent… What happened to his mother?"

"Killed by monsters, most likely. He said she left him somewhere so he could escape while she drew them away."

Chiron grumbled, "That's not much of a clue." A moment later, his eyes widened slightly. "Or perhaps it is." Chiron scanned Nico as though he were looking for something. "Go to breakfast, Nico," he suddenly said, "I've kept you far too long already." Nico seemed a bit confused, but did as Chiron said. "And make sure little Soldatino doesn't continue breaking the rules!"

* * *

Soldatino wasn't at the dining pavilion when Nico arrived. Nico assumed he'd eaten as quickly as he could to get away from his cabin mates, and had probably gone to his first activity of the day, whatever that was.

After Nico had finished his own breakfast, he wandered around the camp, ignoring his own schedule in hopes of finding a place with no people around. He thought the woods might be a good place to try, but on his way there, Annabeth intercepted him.

"Nico! Wait!"

"Whaddya want?"

"I'm looking for the new camper. I saw you with him yesterday and this morning, so I thought you might know where he is."

"Soldatino? I haven't seen him since Chiron lectured us for sleeping in the same cabin," Nico almost walked away, but turned back around. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm supposed to be teaching him Greek this morning," Annabeth explained, running her hand through her hair anxiously, "When he didn't show up, I thought he might be with you, but if you don't know where he is-"

"Did you check my cabin?"

"That was the first place I looked for _you_. Nobody was there. He wasn't in Hermes either."

"Yeah, big shock. Go check all the activity areas, just to make sure he's not still in main camp. I'll start looking for him."

Without waiting for a response, Nico sprinted away, not really sure where he was going. He had no way of knowing where Soldatino could have gone. Knowing how he seems to dislike being with large groups of campers, and seeing how angry he appeared earlier, it made sense that he'd try to find somewhere secluded. At least, he thought that made sense. Maybe that was just Nico's thing. If he was right, meant Tino had most likely run off to somewhere in the forest, but the woods was a big place to search for a kid who couldn't play Marco Polo.

Even so, Nico decided to try. "Soldatino!" he hollered as he wove through the trees, drawing the eyes of several startled nymphs. "Soldatino, are you out here? Soldatino!"

Nico searched the woods for a long time, though exactly how long, he wasn't sure. The third time he came to Zephyros Creek, he stopped to catch his breath. Maybe Soldatino wasn't in the woods at all and Nico had just wasted all this time looking for him in the wrong place. Maybe he never ran off in the first place. He could be with Annabeth learning Greek while Nico ran around trying to find him.

Nico decided to follow the creek down to the beach, then loop back around to camp. If Soldatino hadn't been found by the time he got back, then they would have to put together a proper search party.

As he followed the stream, he noticed a few small footprints in the mud. On closer inspection, they looked pretty fresh. Maybe Soldatino was in the forest after all. The trail stayed close to the water and as Nico followed it, several sets of slightly larger footprints occasionally appeared. They followed the first trail for a time, then disappeared after reaching a place along the bank where the mud looked torn up, like there had been a scuffle.

Now worrying that Soldatino could be hurt, Nico called out for him again. Of course, he was met with silence. He continued along the creek, but only a few meters away, he found Soldatino standing in the water with his pants rolled up to his knees and his t-shirt hanging on a low-hanging branch. "There you are!"

Soldatino turned around and waved at Nico, then wrung out the knitted hat in his hands, frowned, and squatted down to dunk it in the creek and scrub it furiously.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Soldatino started signing with his hands, then just held up his soaked hat and pointed to it, then continued washing it.

"Why're you washing your hat?"

Soldatino pointed to the dark streaks of mud caking his jeans. Before Nico could ask how his clothes got so muddy, he saw the large purple bruise on Soldatino's ribs, as well as a few smaller ones on his scrawny arms. The bruises were scraped up, and they looked like they had only just recently stopped bleeding. "Gods, what on earth happened to you?"

Soldatino grabbed a stick and wrote in the mud, ' _got pushd.'_

So there _had_ been a scuffle upstream. "Why didn't you come back to camp? You don't need to wash your clothes in a creek. We might want to clean out those scrapes too." Soldatino shrugged dismissively and squeezed the water out of his cap. "Come on, grab your stuff. Let's go back to camp. We can clean you up there. And we can let everyone know you're okay." Soldatino quirked an eyebrow at the mention of 'everyone'. "I'm not the only one looking for you, you know. You scared people by running off." The younger boy made a tiny noise deep in his throat, like a hum of surprise. Or perhaps disbelief? "Please come with me, Tino."

For a moment, Nico thought he could see the apprehension flit across his face, like he was considering running off again. But he didn't. Soldatino stepped out of the creek, pulled his wet hat down over his wild black hair, and tucked his shirt under his arm with his shoes hooked onto his fingers. He began to walk off back towards camp, but Nico stopped him, "Wait, where's your notepad?" Soldatino pointed downstream with his free hand. Nico guessed that meant it had been washed downstream. There was no point searching for it, in that case, since wet paper wouldn't be of any use to anyone. "Alright. I'll get you a new one when we get back to camp." Soldatino nodded and continued off into the woods. Nico caught up to him and said, "You should probably put your shoes on. There's all sorts of things you could hurt your feet on."

Soldatino appeared to ignore him, though Nico hoped the lack of response was due to their communication barrier, not the boy intentionally disregarding him. He would have insisted that Soldatino stopped walking and put his shoes on, but he noticed that he didn't seem bothered at all by the rocks, sticks, and various sharp or pointy things he walked over. If he didn't know better, Nico might have thought the forest floor was covered in springy grass growing out of soft dirt, seeing how Soldatino didn't show even the tiniest hint of discomfort.

"Walking out here in bare feet doesn't bother you?" Nico asked after a few minutes. Soldatino shook his head. He _did_ walk pretty much everywhere, Nico supposed, so it stood to reason that perhaps his feet had gotten pretty tough. It still seemed strange how unflinching he was, though. Weren't six-year-olds supposed to be chubby, goofy crybabies? In just the short time Nico had known him, it had become quite clear that Soldatino _wasn't_ those things. For a split second, Nico wondered if maybe there was something wrong with him, but he shook that thought away. He knew that Soldatino had grown up under harder circumstances than even most demigods do. Of course he wouldn't be quite normal.

* * *

Upon reaching camp, Nico would ask some of the campers they passed to let Annabeth and anyone she had recruited to find Soldatino know that Nico had found him and that he was fine. Nico took Soldatino straight to Cabin Thirteen, figuring he wouldn't appreciate being forced back into the Hermes group. That was the reason he had run off in the first place.

"You can hang out in here until I get back, alright? I'm gonna go find you a new notepad. I won't be gone too long, okay?"

Soldatino nodded, not appearing to be bothered by the idea of being left alone again. Nico dashed out and headed up to the camp store. He was pretty sure they had a few journals, notebooks, and similar things for sale there.

On the way, he thought back to earlier that morning, when Chiron had been scolding the boys for breaking the rules. At the time, he hadn't thought much of it, but now, he realized how odd Soldatino's behavior was. The day before, he had seemed like the kind of boy who wouldn't ever really be mad at anyone for long. That morning, though, he had proved that wrong. He wasn't cowed by Chiron at all like most of his older peers would have been. Instead, he was actually angry at the centaur, and not the kind of short-lived, childish hissy-fit anger little kids tend to display for a few minutes before returning to normal. In Nico's memory, Soldatino's anger was sharp and cold, and his icy attitude towards Chiron seemed too old for him. It had been like the boy had aged a decade in the span of a few minutes, turning from a sweet child into a rebellious teenager. His sudden dismissive and detached manner towards Nico seemed odd as well. Soldatino had been so intent on staying near Nico, but now he didn't seem all that concerned about being alone. The day before, Soldatino probably would have begged Nico to stay in the cabin with him, but he didn't. Nico wondered if Tino was mad at him for some reason.

Nico was so lost in thought that he almost walked right past the camp store. Luckily, he caught himself, and dashed into the store. He browsed through their small writing supplies section for a few minutes before choosing a notepad he thought would work best for Soldatino. It was a small pocket notebook held together with a metal spiral. Nothing fancy, and perhaps not the best for writing out long messages or large signs, but most of what Soldatino wrote were short sentences anyway, and, hopefully, the boy would find a smaller notebook to be more convenient to carry around than the legal notepad he had been using.

When Nico returned to his cabin, Chiron was already there, having a staredown with Soldatino. Apparently he had also received the notification that Nico had found him. The small boy's face bore a stony glare that looked like it could kill the scariest of monsters. Nico could guess what Chiron was lecturing him about.

"Ah, Nico, perfect timing," Chiron said, clearly struggling to keep his tone civil, "Would you please help Soldatino clean himself up and then take him to his make-up Greek lesson?" Nico could tell that this wasn't a request.

Not eager to irritate the centaur any further, Nico replied, "Sure. No problem."

Chiron nodded curtly and turned to leave the cabin. Before walking out the door, he added, "And at dinner tonight, I trust that you'll make sure that both of you obey the rules this time." Without waiting for a response, he left.

Nico's eyes followed Chiron out the door, then he turned to look at Soldatino. Now that Chiron was gone, his glare wasn't so hard and cold. Instead, he looked more like he was trying to decide whether to stay angry or just break down and cry. Nico sat down next to him on the bed and asked, "He got mad at you for running off, didn't he?" Tino jerked his head in affirmation. "It probably seems like he's being a bit mean, but you do know he means well, right?"

Soldatino looked at Nico with a raised eyebrow.

"It's his job to make sure all of the demigods here are safe. Running off into the woods without telling anyone put you in danger. There can be some nasty creatures in that forest. Even most of the rules about cabins and tables are in place to keep us safe."

Soldatino looked even more skeptical.

"Look, the gods are known to be more than a bit temperamental. A child of a different god sitting at their table or staying in their cabin could be taken as an insult or as trespassing. And when gods get angry, they tend to mess things up for people or just straight-up kill them. It's not good."

Soldatino's expression softened a bit. He stared at the ground for a few moments, like he was considering this information for the first time. When he was ready, he pointed to the notebook Nico had brought him, which the older boy promptly gave to him. He wrote, significantly slower than he normally did, ' _why woud they do that?'_

Nico shrugged, "Like I said, they're temperamental. The gods aren't known for tolerating any perceived slights against them."

' _gods tink 2 kidz siting togehter is a insalt?'_

"I won't pretend to understand it, Tino. It's just how they are."

' _i dont liek it'_

"I know you don't. But for your own sake, you really should just go along with it and follow the rules. Once you're claimed, you won't have to live in Cabin Eleven anymore. It won't be so bad then." Nico was about to tell Soldatino that he would be claimed soon, but that was a promise he couldn't make. Tino had another seven years before his parent was obliged to claim him. It might be a while.

Soldatino stared blankly at his notepad. Eventually, he nodded and silently slipped his stained t-shirt on. 'i shuld go to leson now'

"Yeah, you're right. Come with me. I'll show you where to go." Nico led Soldatino through the camp, much like he had when Tino had first arrived. But the excitement he'd had the day before was gone. Now, the kid just looked defeated and very, very sad.


	3. Trouble Magnet

Soldatino's Ancient Greek lesson finally ended around 5:00. He didn't go running straight back to Cabin Thirteen as some expected the new camper to do. It had only been one day since his arrival, but a few campers already thought of him as Nico's shadow. But rather than run straight back to the son of Hades, he sat in the grass next to the large brazier in the middle of the field between the cabins. He didn't watch the other campers as they milled around, and his eyes remained downturned, lacking the cautious, curious light they normally held. He looked sad as he wrote slowly in his notebook propped against his knees, pulled close to his chest. He wrote each Greek letter carefully are double-checked the spelling of every word he wrote, trying to make his writing actually legible for once.

"Whatcha writing there, kiddo?" Soldatino's head shot up in alarm at the sound of Percy Jackson's voice. His grip on his writing tools tightened momentarily, as if he were preparing to fight with them. When he saw that it was only Percy, his grip loosened, but his posture stayed stiff, ready to flee. "Can I see what you were writing?" Percy asked with a friendly smile. "I could help you with your spelling or something if you want."

Soldatino quickly shut the notebook and clutched it to his chest, shaking his head vigorously.

Percy raised his hands in surrender, "Alright. Whatever you want. Just thought I'd offer. Can I sit with you, though?" Soldatino's eyes narrowed, seeming distrustful. "I'll sit over here if that would make you more comfortable," Percy pointed to a place in the grass roughly five feet away from the jumpy kid. "I'm nice, I promise." Somewhat reluctantly, the young boy nodded his approval.

Percy settled himself in the grass, trying to look friendly and unthreatening towards the new camper. "So, how've you been liking camp? I heard you went on a little… 'adventure.'" The boy shrugged with his face turned away from Percy. "Bit of a rough start?" He shrugged again. Percy fought back a sigh. "I imagine it might be a bit difficult for you, adjusting to this new environment. Being so shy and mute must make it-"

' _Please stop,'_ Soldatino wrote hastily, ' _I don't like people.'_

He could actually spell correctly in Greek, Percy noticed. "Sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?"

' _Yes, a bit. The others are worse.'_

"You mean the other campers?" Soldatino nodded. "You seem pretty happy with Nico, though. You've been clinging to him like his shadow."

' _Nico is different. I feel safe.'_

"What does he do that makes him so different?" Percy asked, genuinely curious.

Soldatino shrugged again, ' _Don't know. Just is.'_

"Well, you're not wrong. He's definitely a bit different from the other campers here," Percy agreed. "But you know, most campers think he's a bit scary."

Soldatino's eyebrows furrowed together. ' _Why? Nico is nice.'_

"Has he told you who his dad is?" Soldatino nodded. "Well, that's why. Most people are frightened by Hades. It was that way in Ancient Greece too. Death and the Underworld is unsettling for most people."

' _But Nico is not Hades. Nico is Nico.'_

"Yeah, but he's Hades's son. He's got some pretty spooky powers, and he can be downright terrifying when he wants to be. It tends to scare others away."

The younger boy stared at the grass in thought, then wrote, ' _But Nico is not scary.'_

Percy smiled a little bit. He thought it was kind of cute how this little kid liked Nico so much. In his mind, they actually made a pretty good duo. The lone(ly) son of Hades had a little friend who thought he was absolutely wonderful, and honestly didn't care about his parentage. True, the kid clung to him like a barnacle, but Nico didn't seem to mind all that much. He actually seemed quite happy to give the kid the support and reassurance he needed. Percy thought it was almost like Nico was taking little Soldatino in as a little brother of sorts. They were kind of similar is some ways, now that he thought about it. With their black hair and eyes, they even looked a little bit similar.

But he knew Soldatino wasn't Nico's brother. Unlike Zeus and Poseidon, Hades had actually upheld his oath to not have any more children. Of course, he was pretty sure he was hoping to be Nico's brother, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything any crush the poor kid's hopes.

"Why don't you come eat?" Percy changed the subject. "You didn't eat lunch, so you're pretty hungry, I bet." Soldatino shrugged, as if saying 'I don't mind.' "We're playing Capture the Flag later as well, so you'll want to eat before the game starts." Soldatino looked a little bit confused, but nodded and clambered to his feet. He brushed a few stray bits of grass off of his muddy, tattered jeans and walked alongside Percy up to the dining pavilion. Percy patted the little boy's shoulder reassuringly before going off to his table.

Soldatino stood in the middle of the pavilion for a minute. He did not want to sit with the Hermes kids. He was not a Hermes kid. He didn't belong with them, he knew. He meandered up to the buffet table and grabbed some salad and barbecued meat. He slowly wandered to the central brazier and scraped a bit of food into the fire, like Nico had told him to do yesterday. He looked around the pavilion at all the tables. He didn't want to sit with them. The only person he wanted to sit with was Nico, but he wasn't allowed, and he would prefer not to be smited. He stared into the flames for a while thinking of what to do, and eventually plopped himself down on the ground beside the brazier. There probably wasn't any rule against that.

Nobody seemed to notice Soldatino all that much during the meal. He was fine with that. He preferred it, even. He was safer when nobody noticed him. He could eat in peace and not worry about huge men trying to eat him or the homeless person further down the alley trying to steal his hot dog. He blinked, remembering that he wasn't on the street anymore. The most shocking thing about coming to this place wasn't the revelation that gods and magic and mythological creatures were real. He'd never learned that they weren't. No, the strangest thing to him was eating good, hot food in a safe place, having a bed to sleep in and a roof over his head, and not having to look over his shoulder for the monsters he knew were pursuing him. He didn't have to worry anymore. Soldatino thought it should feel nice, but it just felt weird. He didn't fit in and he knew it.

"If you glare any harder at your food, I think it might catch fire." Soldatino looked up to see Nico scraping his leftovers into the brazier. "What're you doing sitting on the ground?"

Soldatino set his plate down beside him and pulled out his pen. ' _Don't want to sit with them.'_

Nico sat down next to the younger boy. "Still having a tough time settling in, huh?"

' _I am not a Hermes kid. I should not be with them.'_

"You can't really say that for sure before you're claimed, you know."

' _I just know, Nico.'_

Nico was quiet for a moment. He had a feeling Tino was right. He certainly didn't look or act like a typical child of Hermes, but there were always a few kids that didn't quite fit in with their cabin's stereotype. "Well I hope you'll be happy with whoever your parent is." Tino gave Nico a half-hearted smile and turned back to the page he was writing on earlier. Out of curiosity, Nico tried to peek at it. "What's that?"

Tino turned to another page. ' _A letter to my dad.'_ He flipped back to his letter and kept writing slowly. Nico read over Tino's shoulder as well as he could without alerting the boy.

 _Dear dad,_

 _I don't know who you are, but I need you to claim me. Please. Please claim me. I am not happy in Hermes's cabin. Sorry to Hermes. Your kids scare me. So please dad, claim me tonight. If you don't, I will leave tomorrow. I don't want to be in a place I don't belong. I will burn extra food just for you tomorrow if you claim me._

 _From Soldatino_

Tino kept replacing words and changing the order of letters around as if he wasn't quite sure if he was spelling them correctly, but the message was quite clear. "You're planning to leave?" Nico blurted. Tino shot Nico a small glare.

' _Don't read it! It's not for you!'_

"Tino, you can't leave!" Nico insisted quietly as to not attract attention, "It's too dangerous for a little kid!"

' _I did fine before.'_

"But it'll be even more dangerous now that you know you're a demigod. Monsters can smell you. Once you find out about your parentage, even more monsters will come after you. That's why demigods train here in the summers."

' _I am not like them. Monsters never catch me.'_

"One almost did, Tino," Nico reminded him.

' _I would have gotten away,'_ Tino wrote confidently, ' _I always do.'_

"Have you ever had a close call like that, Tino?"

' _Lots. Some closer. And I got away.'_

Before Nico could ask anything else, Chiron slammed his hoof against the pavilion floor to get everyone's attention. He announced the teams for the evening's Capture the Flag game: The red team would have Ares, Aphrodite, Demeter, Dionysus, and Poseidon cabins, and the blue team would have Athena, Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Apollo cabins.

"Better finish up your plate, Tino," Nico told the younger boy, "We need to get you armored up for the game."

Tino raised an eyebrow. What kind of game for children requires armor? He didn't protest, however, and quickly scarfed down a few more mouthfuls of food, then scraped the rest into the brazier. Before leaving the pavilion with the other campers, he tore the letter to his father out of his notebook, folded it up neatly, and tossed it into the fire after his food.

As he turned to run after Nico, a few of the younger Ares campers crowded around Soldatino and started pushing him around and taunting him. "Looking forward to your first Capture the Flag, new kid?" one of them snickered, "I bet you'll do great, having no training and all."

"A great punching bag, maybe," another one joined in, "He's too weak to fight back even if he wanted to!" The larger kids all sniggered like it was the funniest thing. Soldatino just stared at them coldly.

"What, got nothing to say?" the third antagonizer mocked him, "Oh, that's right." He snatched Soldatino's notebook out of his hand. "You're too dumb to talk. You need this stupid notebook." Soldatino tried to grab his notebook back, but the older boy just held it up above his head and smirked. "I'll give it back if you really want it. Just ask, you little punk." He leaned down to smirk in Soldatino's face. "Just ask for it and I'll give it back." The six-year-old glared daggers at the son of Ares in frigid silence. The older boy thought he was so clever for mocking a mute child. He began to chuckle, "I guess you don't really want it, then." As he laughed, Soldatino glared harder. Then seemingly out of nowhere, he slammed his head hard into the bully's nose. "Ow! What the-"

The Ares boy dropped the notebook to clutch his bleeding nose. Now Tino smirked back at him. "I'll show you, you little punk!" He raised his fist to strike to smaller boy, but someone else caught his arm before he could take a swing.

"Hands. Off." Nico held the Ares boy's arm in a vise grip with a glare worthy of Hades himself.

"This has nothing to do with you, di Angelo," the bully snarled.

"I said hands off. All of you, stay away from Tino." The Ares children cowered slightly at the frightening aura surrounding Nico, but Tino just smiled broadly.

"You think you can order us around just because you're Hades's kid? You're the same age as us!"

"Oh really? How does a one-way ticket to the Underworld sound? On me, of course."

"You'd never actually do that!"

"You really want to test that theory?" Nico released the head bully's arm. "You all have three seconds to scram before I send you Downstairs. One…" They all turned and fled before Nico could make it to two. He looked at Tino and shook his head. "I take my eyes off you for one minute and you just get into more trouble."

Tino looked up at Nico with big, innocent eyes and an impish grin.

"What am I going to do with you?" Nico messed up Tino's hair playfully. "Why were they ganging up on you like that?"

Tino picked his notebook up off the ground and opened it to a fresh page. ' _They are just mean. They pushed me into the creek earlier.'_

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. But why was that one kid so angry?"

' _I headbutted him in the face.'_

Nico did a double-take, then started laughing uncontrollably. "That's… Wow. That's hilarious. Good job, Tino. Good job."

* * *

Finding gear for Soldatino wasn't easy. Being so small and scrawny, he looked like a toddler wearing daddy's clothes. All of the breastplates in the armory hung off of his twiggy body and all the helmets fit on his head about as well as a large bronze bucket. Fortunately, one of the Hephaestus kids managed to find a few particularly small pieces of armor buried under a pile of scrap and disused equipment. The armor looked a bit old and beat up, and was still a size or three too big, but it was usable.

"That'll have to do for now," Nyssa said to Nico as they watched Soldatino fumble with his armor and struggle to lift his sword. "We'll try to make him some gear that actually fits later." Tino dropped the sword with a loud clatter. "A sword might be good, too."

"You don't have any lighter swords for him?"

"That's the lightest one I could find. Well, the lightest one that shouldn't explode, anyway. I could give him a dagger or something, but a smaller blade probably wouldn't be of much use too him since he's untrained and everyone else will have swords."

"You've got a point," Nico conceded. "It would have been good if he could have been trained at least a little bit before Capture the Flag."

"He could always sit out."

"He could, but he won't."

"You're not even gonna try to convince him?"

"It won't work. Believe me, kid's got a stubborn streak as wide as the Styx."

Nyssa shrugged, "Whatever you say. I recommend talking to Athena cabin about keeping him out of harm's way, though. I'd hate to see the squirt get squished."

Nico nodded and said a quick thank you, then wandered off to follow Nyssa's suggestion. Tino was wandering around the armory in his too-big breastplate, helmet and sword abandoned on a table.

"Watch what you touch, kid," Nyssa warned, "Most of this stuff is more than a bit dangerous." Tino nodded and almost immediately started eying up a crate of explosive arrows. "On second thought, how about you just go outside? Go play in the sunshine or something."

Apparently Tino was in a more cooperative mood, because he obeyed without a fuss. He found an out-of-the-way spot in the shadow of the armory where he sat and watched the older campers getting ready for Capture the Flag. He was a bit confused, though. He thought he might have seen the game played before as he passed a school, but it looked pretty different. It looked more like the camp was getting ready for war, not a game. As far as he knew, most kids' games didn't involve very real, very sharp swords. Maybe it was just something he had missed out on since he rarely played with other kids.

Nico came out of Athena's cabin and made a beeline for Soldatino. He sat down in the grass beside him. "So I just got done talking about tonight's strategy with the Athena kids," Nico said, "They told me they found the perfect position for you in the game." Tino's ears seemed to perk up a bit, like a puppy who heard the treat bin opening. "There's this area behind where the flag will be. It's a very important that this area is protected, because people on the other team could sneak around our main defense and try to snatch the flag from behind. They think you would be good at protecting that side of the flag. Does that sound good?" Nico fought back the urge to laugh as Tino bought his words hook, line, and sinker. _One thing I like about little kids,_ Nico thought, _They'll believe anything._

"Now, since you haven't been trained at all and you're so much smaller than everyone else, it's probably best if you avoid combat with anybody this time around, okay?" Tino's eyebrows pinched together, but he nodded. "If you spot anybody in your area, I want you to alert one of the other guard groups, alright? Don't try to fight by yourself." Tino nodded solemnly. This was an important job. He needed to take this seriously.

Or maybe not. When the teams were getting into position, Tino wandered off to his assigned location and proceeded to investigate all the plants in the vicinity. The conch horn blew to signal the game's start, and Tino started following a trail of ants to their home and watched them file into their little hole in the ground. A moth flew into the side of his head and he started chasing it. Then he got distracted by a pair of squirrels chasing each other up a tree. A few birds squawked from up in the branches, so he decided to climb the tree to see if he could spot them. He left his cumbersome armor and sword at the base of the tree and scrambled up nimbly. When he got high enough, he found there was actually quite a nice view over some of the shorter trees. He could see the large rock pile with his team's banner on top. He looked down to see how high he'd climbed and suddenly felt like he'd made a horrible mistake. He should not be so high up. Heights were bad. Mom had always told him so.

Tino started climbing back down the tree, much slower than he had climbed up. On the lower branches, he felt much more comfortable. He actually decided to sit down on one of them and just enjoy being in the forest. He didn't normally get to do things like that in the cities he was usually in, especially with monsters on his tail. But things would be different now. No more monsters, and no more running.

Tino heard a rustle in the branches off to his left. Expecting a raccoon or something, he turned, and was startled by the curious green face only a few inches from his. With an undignified yelp, he jumped and very nearly fell off of his branch. Fortunately, Tino was quick and managed to hug the tree trunk before he actually fell.

"Sorry," the green-faced girl apologised in a tiny voice, "Did I scare you?"

Tino steadied himself on the branch and shook his head and flapped one of his hands, trying to express something along the lines of 'What? No, that's crazy! I totally didn't just freak out and almost fall out of a tree. That's just silly.' It just looked kind of weird though.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked.

Tino pointed to his mouth, opened it and closed it as though he were talking, and shook his head 'no'. It took a few seconds, but then the green girl eventually pieced together his meaning.

"I get it! You can't talk!" Tino nodded with a friendly smile. "I'm Poppie. I'm a nymph."

Tino pointed to himself and started miming all sorts of things to try to tell Poppie his name. After she had pieced together all the letters of his name, they continued their game of charades, finding it to be quite a lot of fun.

Tino was just about to start a new round miming a cyclops when something solid struck him hard in the temple and knocked him out of the tree. Poppie shrieked and immediately started climbing down to see if Tino was okay. Fortunately, he hadn't been too high up and there were some shrubs that helped soften his fall. Unfortunately, however, his head hurt and was bleeding thanks to the rock someone had thrown at him, and he had landed on his bruised ribs, making them hurt even more than they did when he was pushed into the creek earlier that day.

"Soldatino, are you okay?" Poppie squeaked as soon as her feet touch the ground, "You're bleeding! Head bleeding isn't good! Are you gonna die?"

Tino shook his head slowly as he sat up. He gave Poppie a weak thumbs-up and pressed down gingerly around his new head wound. It was starting to throb a bit, and it kind of made him want to cry, but he fought back the sniffles and focused more on trying to figure out who had thrown a rock at him.

He didn't have to wonder very long, seeing as the Ares kids from the pavilion all appeared out of the woods with mean smiles, and one with a very bruised nose.

"You're gonna pay for what you did to my nose, you little twerp," he threatened, a second rock in one hand and a sword in the other, "Di Angelo isn't here to save you this time."

Poppie whispered, "Tino, let's get out of here."

Tino agreed, but when the two of them turned to flee, one of the much larger boys grabbed hold of him and pinned him to the tree. He heard Poppie call his name and start heading back to help him, but he signalled to her to keep going. He was young, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell that the child nymph would only get hurt if she stuck around.

The leader of the group sauntered up to Tino with a grin on his face. "Not so tough without the son of Hades to hide behind, are you?" he taunted. Tino whimpered when he felt the cold point of the older boy's sword poke his belly. "Not so smart either, looks like. What kind of idiot doesn't wear armor during a battle? You don't even have a weapon on you." He pressed the sword in a little harder, but still not enough to break the skin. "It's a wonder you survived this long."

Soldatino started to panic. Tears started falling down his face. He didn't want to get stabbed. Sure, he'd headbutted one of these jerks in the face, but they were the ones who started being mean to him first. They were the ones who had chased him through the woods and pushed him into the creek. They were the ones who got his clothes all dirty and wet, and made him fall on that rock in the water. Headbutting the jerkface was justified, right? Even if it wasn't, getting stabbed over it seemed like way too much. He didn't want to die now!

"You busted up my nose, punk," the Ares boy sneered, "I said I was gonna pay you back for that, and I will." He sheathed his sword and Tino sobbed quietly in relief. "They say 'an eye for an eye,' yeah?" He raised his fist, ready to strike. "I guess in this case, it's a whole face for a nose!"


	4. An Orphan No More

Tino squeezed his eyes shut and grit his teeth, bracing himself for the oncoming blow. Silently, he begged to no one, _Please don't._ To his surprise, his prayer was answered.

The boy felt something rush around him, and with a cry, his assailants released him. He opened his eyes and saw all of them sprawled out unceremoniously in the dirt, none of them less than ten feet away from him. Tino blinked a few times in surprise and confusion. How did that happen? Did he do that?

"What the hell was that?" one of the Ares boys snarled as he scrambled to his feet. Tino glanced around at each of the older campers as they rose, all looking much angrier and more vicious than before.

"Who cares?" the leader snapped. He stared directly at Tino with a sharp glare, but Tino noticed that he was standing a little different from before. He looked less sure of himself, and more than a bit shaken. The larger boy began charging at Tino again. Tino raised his arms in defense, but just like before, there was nothing to block. This time though, Tino saw what saved him.

He didn't know what it was, but a mass of transparent black particles seemed to burst forth out of nowhere and slam into Tino's would-be attacker, like an amorphous guard dog. While the Ares campers were distracted and panicking, Tino took the opportunity to book it. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the older kids to regroup. Tino could hear them charging through the woods behind him like a pack of angry boars. Fortunately, he was small and quick, and he'd gotten very good at running away from anything and everything.

In the distance, Tino heard the conch horn again, signalling that the game was over. He raced as fast as he could towards the sound of the horn, figuring that was were Nico would be. If he could get to Nico, he would protect him.

One of the boys managed to catch up and seize Tino once again. The frightened boy tried summoning the black mass again and it worked, blasting the other boy back into a tree. But this time, once it dissipated, Tino suddenly felt drained and out of breath. Nevertheless, he took off again. Soon, he could hear the victory cheers of the other campers. He must've been close to that rock pile Nico showed him before the game started. Tino mustered a the energy to run a little bit faster, and he soon broke out of the trees into the clearing.

At first, nobody seemed to notice his arrival, until the pursuing Ares kids burst out of the trees as well and tackled their quarry into the creek. Most of the cheering stopped once the other campers heard Tino's distressed squealing and splashing while the older kids battered him.

Tino heard a familiar voice shout his name, and a few moments later, the weight on him lessened a bit. "I told you to keep your hands off him!" Nico shouted furiously while wrestling with one of the Ares boys. The clattering of armor told Tino that several other campers were coming to help, but he didn't want to wait. These kids were hurting him, and he wanted them off _NOW_. Tino focused as much as he was able to, and with a screech, summoned the black mass once again, much larger than before, and blasted all of his assailants off of him, sending them flying off into the trees.

With the last little bit of strength he had, Tino started dragging himself out of the water and up onto the pebbly, muddy bank. He felt someone pick him up and help him up onto dry land. When they helped him into a sitting position, he saw that it was Nico. "Tino, are you okay?"

Bruised, drained, and sore, Tino shook his head.

"Right, of course you're not. Stupid question. We'll get you all fixed up, alright?" Tino nodded weakly. Nico picked the scrawny boy up carefully, trying not to jostle him too much. The boy clung to Nico like his life depended on it, his whole body shaking. "It's okay, kiddo," Nico whispered to him, "I got you." A crowd of campers gathered around the pair.

"Is he okay?"

"What did he just do?"

"How did he do that?"

"Here kid, drink this."

People were poking and patting Tino, and one person was shoving a water bottle in his face for him to drink from, but he could tell whatever it was, it sure wasn't water. Tino whined and turned his head away from the other campers, instead hiding his face in Nico's shoulder as well as he could.

"Quit it!" Nico shouted, "You're all freaking him out. Back off and give him some breathing room, will you?" At the command of the Ghost King, the others backed away. Nico muttered under his breath, "Gods, you'd think none of them have ever met little kids before."

He was about to leave and carry little Tino back to main camp and over to the infirmary, but before he even stepped into the creek, he noticed his peers staring at something up over his head. "What're you all staring at- oh." Nico followed their gazes to the translucent glyph suspended in the air, not over his head, but over Tino's. Eyes locked on the hologram, Nico gently shook Tino's shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, Tino, look up." Tino whined louder than before and pushed his face harder into Nico's shirt. "Tino, you want to see this. Your prayer was answered."

At that, the little boy released his grip on Nico, just a little bit. He looked slightly confused, even more so when he saw the symbol floating above his head. He batted at it with one hand, but his fingers simply drifted through it. After a few moments of shocked silence from everyone, the glyph vanished. Once the camp had regained their bearings, there was a loud clatter of bronze armor and weapons clanging, and everyone kneeled.

"Hail," Chiron announced, sounding uneasy, "Soldatino, son of Hades, lord of the Underworld."

Tino blinked a few times then looked at Nico and grinned, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten. At that moment, he looked so happy to be claimed by Hades. He had a dad. He had a family again. And he'd gotten exactly what he wanted.

* * *

Moving Soldatino into Cabin 13 didn't take too long, since he didn't have many possessions. All he had was the clothes on his back and whatever was in his his beat-up backpack. Nico picked up Tino's belongings from Cabin 11 while the Apollo kids in the infirmary patched up his little brother. It felt strange to Nico, saying he had a brother, even just in his mind. He didn't think he had any siblings other than Bianca, and then Tino appeared. Apparently all of the Big Three broke their oaths.

Now he understood what Chiron had meant earlier when he wondered if the monsters chasing Tino were a clue about his parentage. Everyone knew that children of the Big Three are monster magnets. It was still unusual for monsters to go after such a young demigod, but if he was a child of Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades, it would make a lot more sense.

Nico felt a brief flash of anger towards his - their - father. Because they were Hades's sons, both he and Tino had lost their mothers. They both had been left alone because of him. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of Tino, however. He remembered when he arrived at camp and was living in Cabin 11. He was there for what felt like ages, waiting to be claimed, but he never was. Nico was left unclaimed and parentless until he went down into the Underworld himself. Tino had been there little more than a day, and he had been claimed already, in front of everybody. Was it because Tino wrote that prayer letter, or was it just a display of favoritism? Nico knew Hades always preferred Bianca over him. Did he already prefer Tino as well? Nico shook his thoughts away. There was no point dwelling on it, and it would definitely be unfair to feel bitter towards Tino over it.

Nico sat down on Tino's bed and opened up his brother's backpack to put everything away - not there was much. He folded up Tino's single change of clothes and tucked them into his storage chest. He pulled a plastic sandwich baggie filled with coins out of the bottom and dropped them in, along with a ragged wallet stuffed with grubby small bills, a metal lunchbox filled with junk food, probably out of vending machines and convenience stores, and a rusty Swiss army knife. The only thing left in the bag was a rather large book. At a glance, it looked like it might be a textbook or a manual. He pulled it out and looked at the title: _Learning American Sign Language._

Nico remembered how Tino originally tried to use sign language to communicate on the way to camp. He hadn't thought about it all that much before, but now he wondered if Tino had taught himself with this book, or if maybe his mom taught him. It was hard to believe that such a young kid could teach himself a language without a teacher, even if he had a book. It seemed pretty unlikely that Tino would've had the means or idea to pick up an ASL book in the first place.

A knock on the door tore Nico's attention away from the book's cover. He got up and answered it, finding Will Solace with a woozy-looking Tino. Despite looking a bit discombobulated, his deeper cuts were now cleaned and bandaged up nicely, and his scrapes and bruises looked a bit better already.

Will greeted Nico with a smile. "I got him all fixed up," he said cheerfully, "Well, mostly anyway."

"He looks like he had a bad roller coaster ride. What on earth did you give him?"

"Just a bit of nectar and some mortal pain killers. He's so small, I thought a regular dose of nectar might be too much for him." As if to prove Will's point, Tino wobbled into the cabin and walked straight into a bedpost, then flopped on the bed in a fit of delirious giggles.

"How much did you give him?"

"He'll be fine," Will assured Nico confidently, "A little sleep and it'll be like nothing ever happened!" Tino rolled off the bed with a squeal and a loud thud.

The older boys were silent for a moment. "You okay, Tino?"

Tino responded with a loud "Neeeeh".

"Is that a yes?"

"Neeh." Tino's arm shot into the air with his thumb sticking up.

"He's okay." Nico turned back to Will, but wasn't sure what else to say. "So… Um… Thanks. You know, for fixing up Tino. And bringing him back… and stuff…"

"Yeah, yeah, no problem, Nico." Will rubbed the back of his neck. "Sweet kid. Tino, I mean. He's, uh, real sweet once he settles down."

"Yeah, he's a good kid. Nice kid."

Will and Nico stood on the porch in a bit of an awkward silence. Will looked around and finally noticed the book Nico still had in his hand. "What's that? I don't think I've ever seen you with a book."

"What? Oh, this is Tino's. I was putting his stuff away for him and I found it in his backpack."

"What's it about?"

"Sign language. Tino's mute, so he uses it. I think his mom must've taught him or something."

"So he really is totally mute? I thought maybe he just didn't like talking to people he didn't know, but he really doesn't talk at all?"

"Not as far as I know. He hasn't said a single word since me and Percy found him."

"Huh. I wonder why. He's not deaf, so maybe he has social anxiety or something?"

"Maybe. I don't really know much about that kind of thing."

"Right, I get that." Will nodded and went silent for a moment. "So, um… Are you gonna try to learn?"

"Learn what? Sign language? Well, um… maybe. That's a pretty good idea, actually."

Will smiled. "I bet your little brother would like that. Could you show me the book real quick?" Nico showed him the cover. " _Learning American Sign Language…_ Cool. Maybe I'll pick up a copy so I can learn too. Or maybe I could convince Chiron to get a whole bunch of them so everyone else could learn."

The corner of Nico's mouth quirked up a little. "You think you could get him to do that?"

"Well, he _is_ a teacher at heart. If it's for educational purposes and for the betterment of his pupils, then maybe." The two of them smiled at each other for a minute, not saying anything. "So, um… I should probably go," Will finally broke the silence. "It's getting late, so I should go make sure my cabin is… you know… doing stuff."

"Right, right, you've got counselor stuff."

"Exactly." Another short silence later, Will said, "So, um, goodnight, I guess. Goodnight to you too, Tino!" he called over Nico's shoulder.

Tino waved, still on the floor. "Neeeh!"

"Make sure that one gets plenty of sleep, will you?" Will told Nico, "He had quite a day."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

"Good. Well, see ya." Will patted Nico's shoulder, his hand lingering just a little too long. "Goodnight. I already said that. Very smooth, Solace." With a pink face, Will retreated from the porch and shuffled down the row of cabins down to the golden building dedicated to Apollo.

Nico shut the door and turned around to see Tino grinning at him from down on the floor. "What're you smiling about?"

Tino picked up his notebook and pen and scribbled in Greek, ' _Is Will your boyfriend?'_

"What?!" Nico jumped, "No, no! We barely know each other! We're not… No."

' _He should be your boyfriend. I like him. Will is nice and pretty.'_

Nico sputtered in surprise. "Tino, it's not- I don't- That… No, Tino."

' _Why not? Your face is pink. That means you like him.'_

"No, no, Tino, I think you're misreading-"

' _He likes you.'_ Tino grinned like a cheeky cat.

"Stop it, Tino. It's not like that." Tino shrugged and flopped back down onto the floor. Nico sat down on his own bed, feeling his cheeks glowing red. He knew Tino probably had no clue what he was talking about, but he felt embarrassed all the same. It seemed strange to him, too, that a little boy saw no issue with two boys dating, even in this day and age. "Doesn't it bother you, Tino?"

Tino lifted his head off the floor. "Heh?"

"I said 'doesn't it bother you?'"

' _I heared you,'_ Tino scribbled, ' _I do not know what you mean.'_

"You know… Two guys." Tino nodded with a raised eyebrow, like he was waiting for more information. "Two guys dating? It doesn't like… weird you out or anything?"

' _Why would it? It seems normal to me.'_

"Normal?" Tino nodded drowsily. "That's… Um… That's pretty much the opposite of what I heard when I was your age." Tino made an uneasy face and started rubbing circles into his chest with his fist. "You okay? Does your chest hurt?" Tino shook his head and pointed at the book Nico was still holding. "Oh. Sign language. Right." Nico flipped through the book until he found a diagram of the sign Tino had made. _Sorry._ "Sorry? What for?"

' _They said it is bad for boys to like boys. That makes you feel bad about liking a boy. I am sorry you feel bad.'_

"No, no! Tino, I don't-" Nico panicked and started to deny what Tino was suggesting, but he felt bad about it. He should be honest with his little brother, right? And Tino had made it clear he didn't judge him for it. After a moment of hesitation, he gave in. "Don't tell anybody, okay Tino? Nobody here knows. I don't want them to know. Please, just keep it between us, okay?"

Much to Nico's relief, Tino agreed, even if he didn't fully understand why. "Thanks, Tino. Thanks a lot." Realizing that it was getting late, Nico changed the subject, "You've had a long day. How about you put your pajamas on and head to bed?"

"Mmm," Tino agreed with a sleepy nod and crawled over to dig around in his storage chest for his duckie pajamas. He changed into them and got into his bunk, curled up into a tight ball.

"Hey, Tino, before you nod off, can I borrow your sign language book? I'd like to learn so I can use it with you."

"Mmm."

Nico assumed that was a yes. "Thanks Tino. Goodnight."


	5. Day 568

The sounds of activity from other cabins stirred Soldatino from his light slumber. He pulled the blanket over his head and tried to return to his dream about an all-you-can-eat chicken nugget buffet manned by talking miniature giraffes, but it was too late. He was awake, and the dream had slipped away. He groaned quietly, sat up, and reached for his backpack out of habit before remembering that he no longer had to pack up and leave anymore. This was his home now. A toothy grin stretched across his round face. Combined with his rumpled ducky pajamas and disheveled curls that could only be described as a mess, his smile made him look a bit like a maniacal poodle.

Poodle-boy got out of bed and quickly changed into the same clothes he'd worn the day before (though he did have the presence of mind to wear his clean pair of socks) and pulled his knitted cap down over his hair, several curls sticking out from underneath. His scrapes and bruises ached a bit, but it really wasn't so bad, and his clothes still smelled like creekwater and mud, but hey, it was better than the all times he had to hide in dumpsters.

Tino pulled on his shoes and peeked out the front door. He couldn't see many of the cabins on his side of the field very well, but it sounded like Cabin 11 was starting to wake up, and a few campers were milling about in front of Cabin 7. On the other side of the field, two other cabins were stirring: The plain grey one where Annabeth lived, and the one that reminded him of the bright pink plastic dollhouses he often saw in the windows of toy stores. He couldn't remember which goddess that cabin belonged to, but he was kind of glad he didn't live there. Tino wasn't picky about many things, but he was not a fan of the Barbie look.

He stepped out onto the porch and closed the door quietly behind him, letting his big brother sleep. Tino grinned. It was a bit of a blur, but he remembered being claimed the night before. The only time he could think of that he'd been so happy was when his mom brought him a big slice of lemon cake from the store for his fifth birthday. Tino shuffled through the wet grass, hardly noticing the dew that soaked through his worn-out sneakers while he made his way to the brazier in the middle of the field, thinking of that birthday. He stood beside it and watched the flames, the fire cutting through the pre-dawn chill. His smile turned small and wistful as he remembered that day with his mom. He hadn't even realized what day it was back then. He didn't expect to get anything. At the time, he hadn't even known about birthday presents. But he had always wanted to try lemon cake. He'd often pestered his mom to buy him a piece so he could taste it just once, but it never happened. Not until he turned five, when she came back to their motel room with the cake.

It was so good, he'd almost cried out of joy. The two of them shared the delicious lemon cake and watched TV shows all night. At one point, his mom had asked him why he'd been so set on trying that specific kind of cake. His answer was simple. It was bright yellow, and he loved yellow the most out of all the colors. Tino had no memories of his other birthdays, but he figured his fifth was the best one. The only other birthday he remembered was his sixth, and that one had been spent alone. His smile fell as his fond memory turned sad. He missed his mom. Tino wanted to eat lemon cake with her during his next birthday.

Tino turned away from the fire and looked towards the Long Island Sound, where the sky was turning a telltale pale gold. He wondered if he had enough time to make it to the beach to watch the sunrise. He walked briskly across the field, hoping he could get to the waterfront before the sun did.

As Tino passed by Cabin 11, he jumped when someone inside screamed. He resisted the urge to bolt, knowing the scream was likely just the result of some prank. Once again, he was glad he wasn't claimed by Hermes. Passing by Cabin 7, he waved at the kids wandering around the field. Only a few of them noticed, and those that did waved back with an odd expression. Then they whispered something to their siblings, who quickly glanced at Tino then away just as fast. He retracted his hand slowly, remembering seeing parents on playgrounds making nearly the same face when they would look at him. He still wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but he understood well enough that he wasn't welcome. Tino turned his head down to the grass and kept walking as if nobody was there.

From the porch of the cabin, someone shouted a greeting at him. Tino knew it was Will without looking, but he spared him a quick glance anyway. Will smiled and waved at him, sitting on the steps with untied shoes. Out of the corner of his eye, Tino saw Will's smile fall slightly when he turned his eyes away and began walking faster. He heard Will call out to him again and start following him, but it sounded to Tino like Will tripped on his shoelaces and fell. Tino didn't look to check.

Tino did make it to the beach in time. Just as he sat himself down in the sand, the first full rays of sunlight began to appear. He'd survived to see the next sunrise, his five-hundred-and-sixty-eighth day without Mom.

Tino jumped as someone much larger than him dropped down next to him. "I was wondering where you were rushing off to so early in the morning," Will said with a smile. His shoes were tied now. Tino was very tempted to get up and leave, maybe go back to his cabin, but he liked Will. He didn't want to make him mad. "I thought maybe something was bothering you when you didn't respond earlier, but now I get that you were just trying to get here in time for the sunrise, yeah?"

Tino nodded. Will didn't need to know that Tino did not want to socialize.

"Do you always get up early to watch the sunrise? I would've thought you'd sleep in a little more. Most of the other campers won't wake up for another hour or two."

Tino picked up a stick and wrote in the sand, ' _Light and sound wakes me up. I always wake up around sunrise because that's when we needed to go.'_

"We?"

' _Me and mom.'_

"Oh. Did you guys travel a lot?"

' _Always. We never stayed in one town longer than one or two days.'_

Will seemed surprised. "Really? Then how did you go to school?"

' _I didn't. Mom taught me everything.'_

"Wow. It must have been really hard to make friends."

' _Never had any. Never knew anybody long enough.'_

"I can't imagine never having _any_ friends. No wonder you don't fit in." As soon as Will realized what he had said, his freckled face turned red. "Oh no! I didn't mean it like that! I mean, I didn't mean for that to sound mean. Oh man, that was a terrible sentence. Anyway, it's just that you're odd - I mean, just a little bit, and not in a bad way! Well, it's more like people talk when there's a new kid, and _they_ think you're a little odd, with the way you were clinging to Nico, and then it turns out you're a son of Hades, and people are a bit freaked out by Hades… I'm not making this any better. I'm-"

Tino silenced Will by clapping his little hand over Will's mouth. He pointed to another etching in the sand. ' _Stop talking.'_

"Sorry," Will mumbled. Tino removed his hand and looked back to the horizon, where the sun was about halfway risen. "So, are you gonna go back to your mom when the summer ends? It's only a few days away."

Tino shook his head.

"Why not?"

' _I can't.'_

"Why not? Do you think it would be too dangerous? Or did you not like living with her, or-"

' _She's gone. I don't know where she is.'_

"Oh. I see. Is it because of the travelling thing?"

' _No. She's been gone for a long time. Since last year after I turned 5.'_

"And since then..?"

' _If you want to know, ask Nico. He knows.'_

"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I was being nosy." By now, the sun had fully risen above the horizon line. "So you like sunrises?"

' _Seeing a sunrise means I'm not dead.'_

"Well aren't you cheerful? I'm starting to see the son-of-Hades thing." Will waited for Tino to scratch another line of text in the sand, but he didn't make even the tiniest motion with his stick. "Tino? Is something wrong? I said something wrong, didn't I?"

After another few moments of hesitation, Tino scribbled in the sand, ' _Forget about it.'_ Apparently, Tino had decided the conversation was over, since he got up and started walking away without so much as a 'see ya.'

Confused, Will turned around to watch Tino leave. "Tino? Tino, wait! Come back! What did I do?" He was sure Tino heard him, but the younger boy didn't acknowledge it. "Tino!" As his tiny figure disappeared toward the cabins, Will turned back to the water, trying not to feel hurt or disappointed. _Tino's just struggling to adjust_ , Will told himself, _it'll be okay_. He squinted at the golden disk of the sun, shielding his eyes a bit with his fingers. "I think he might like you more than he likes me, Dad. Maybe you should come down some time and make friends with the little guy. He could use a few of those."

* * *

Tino wasn't mad at Will for anything. He was just tired of all the questions, and he interested in explaining his interest in the sun. That would be far too much writing to explain something he suspected Will - and quite a few of the other campers - just wouldn't really understand. He was young, but he had already learned that street rats like him saw life differently than those who were lucky enough to grow up with a roof and four walls.

What he had told Will was true, but far simpler than he would've liked to say. The sunrise didn't just tell him that he wasn't dead. To Tino, the sun was a symbol of life and survival. Seeing a sunrise meant that he had survived another day. When he had been on the streets, being hunted by monsters, scavenging for scraps, and constantly hoping he wouldn't get injured or fall ill, death could have been waiting around any corner. There was nothing he appreciated as much as seeing a new sunrise.

Well, maybe a good chicken nugget.

Tino returned to his cabin and entered quietly so he wouldn't disturb Nico. There was no point in doing so, however, since the cabin was empty. Tino wondered where his brother had gone, but wasn't worried. They would see each other at breakfast if Nico didn't return before then. Seeking to entertain himself for the next hour before he could go up to the dining pavilion, Tino opened up his chest of stuff and rifled through his belongings. He almost panicked when he couldn't find his ASL book before remembering he had lent it to Nico. He had wanted to flip through and review a few signs that he didn't use very often, but he supposed it wasn't all that important. He knew Sign Language well enough.

He continued looking through his box, but there wasn't much he could play with. He pulled out his bag of coins and his wallet. Should he practice counting with his money? he wondered. His face twisted a bit and dropped them back in with the rest of his things. Nah. Boring. He pulled out his lunch box of snacks. Maybe he could snack on a few twinkies or something to tide him over before breakfast? He almost opened one of the packages, but stopped himself and put the lunchbox back. Breakfast would be served soon, so he didn't _need_ to eat his snacks. They should be saved for when he _does_ need them. Besides, it's not like they need to be eaten right away. Twinkies last forever. Mom said so.

Reaching the conclusion that his storage chest doubled as the Toy Box of Boredom, Tino closed the lid and flopped down on the floor. He laid there wiggling his feet, slapping his hands against the floorboards, and making the weirdest noises he could think of. He rolled around a bit, got up and walked across the empty beds, and jumped off of everything he could in vain attempts to hang from the beams lining the ceiling like a monkey. He looked around to find a clock, sure that he had burned the better part of an hour and he could start heading up to the dining pavilion.

It had only been about ten minutes.

Tino groaned in dismay and collapsed back to the floor in defeat. Breakfast would never come. Maybe eating the twinkies was a good idea after all.

Resisting the temptation to snack, he grabbed his notebook and pen and left the cabin again. But what was there to do? Tino wandered around the camp, desperately looking for something to do. After several minutes of aimless wandering, he meandered past the strawberry field and plucked one plump fruit off of the vine. He gulped it down in only two bites. The strawberry was so sweet and juicy, he picked a few more and stuffed them in his pockets to sacrifice to his father later. After all, he had promised to burn extra food if he was claimed. It seemed a shame to burn perfectly good food, but he figured if everyone here did it, then the food must not be being truly wasted. The gods wouldn't like waste, would they?

Tino made his way down from the fields to the Big House. The wood of the veranda creaked softly under his feet as he walked on it. A rocking chair was sitting out in a spot that provided a fantastic view of the rest of camp. Tino took a seat in the chair, his feet swinging several inches off the ground. He enjoyed the view of the valley. It was a change for him. Not just the the fact that he had a home, but also having the time to sit and just look at things. Spare time was not a luxury he'd had before. Now that he didn't have to scavenge, beg, and travel every waking moment, he had more time than he knew what to do with. His fingers itched to do something.

After a few minutes, the front door opened and Tino heard wheels rolling over the boards of the deck. "I thought I heard someone out here," Chiron said pleasantly and wheeled his chair over to where Tino was sitting, "Good morning Soldatino. How are you feeling today?"

' _Fine,'_ Tino scribbled, ' _Some places are still sore, but I've hurt worse before.'_

"I'm glad to hear that you're recovering well. You had… quite a day yesterday. I do apologize for that."

' _Why?'_

"Part of my job is keeping my campers safe. Such violence towards another camper - especially one so young and new to camp - it is completely unacceptable and I wish I had prevented it. So I apologize."

' _No need. Not your fault.'_

"Well, even so… The boys who attacked you are being punished, you may like to know. Their rights to free time, Capture the Flag, and a few other activities have been suspended for the next six weeks, to be replaced with mucking out the stables, cleaning the bathrooms, and so on."

' _Because of me?'_

"Because of their actions, Soldatino. Bullying is not an acceptable pastime at Camp Half-Blood."

Tino nodded, satisfied with Chiron's explanation. ' _Did you know my dad is Hades?'_ he wrote suddenly.

Chiron read the note and pondered over it for a moment. "Did I know? No. I did have my suspicions though, after your brother mentioned that monsters had been after you. With your quick attachment to Mr. di Angelo, I did start to wonder whether you could be a son of Hades."

' _Why did the monsters make you suspicious?'_

Chiron smiled grimly. "I doubt anyone has talked to you about this yet, but monsters don't normally start going after demigods until they're a fair bit older than you are. Not that it doesn't happen, but it is less common. However, they do sometimes start going after more powerful demigods at a younger age, due to their scent being stronger than normal. Children of the Big Three - that's Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades - are almost always in that 'more powerful' category."

Tino thought over what Chiron was telling him. ' _So the monsters were after me and mom because they smelled me?'_

Chiron nodded. "It's possible, yes. Even so, it's still unusual that a monster would hunt down a demigod as young as yourself, even a son of Hades. It could be that they were under orders." Tino must've made a face, because Chiron explained further, "We were at war until just a few weeks ago. We were seeking out demigods even more than before, but so was the opposing side. They wanted demigods for their army, and they frequently used monsters to track them down and recruit them. If someone in Kronos's army caught wind of you, they would have undoubtedly sought you out. You could potentially grow up to be very powerful. We're all lucky you were able to evade them for so long."

' _If it weren't for my mom, they would have got me.'_

"Ah, yes, your brother mentioned that. Your mother provided you with an opportunity to escape from a group of monsters. She must have been very brave."

' _She is. She hid me and made sure the monsters followed her. She knew it was dangerous, but she did it anyway so that I could get away.'_

"I would have loved to meet her. She sounds like an amazing woman." After a moment, Chiron made a face like he smelled something strange. "Soldatino, you said she made sure the monsters followed her. Did she _know_ what they were?"

' _She said they were cyclopes and snake ladies.'_

"But she could see them for what they were?"

' _Yes. I always thought it was weird that no one else noticed.'_

"How curious." Chiron stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Well, it's not unheard of for the occasional mortal to be able to see through the Mist. Parents of demigods _are_ more likely to have the ability, so I suppose it stands to reason." Chiron glanced at his watch. "Look at that! It's almost time for breakfast. Care to walk with me to the dining pavilion?"

* * *

Upon arrival at the pavilion, the first thing Tino did was toss the strawberries he'd picked into the brazier. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought one of the kids from the cabin with the grass roof shot him a dirty look. He got himself a plate of food, made a sacrifice of scrambled eggs, and sat down at the Hades table. He munched on crispy bacon and toast while waiting for Nico to join him. Kids from other tables watched him with apprehension in their eyes while he ate. His plate soon emptied. Half of the kids left the pavilion to get ready for activities. Then the rest trickled out. Soon, Tino was the only one in the pavilion. Nico never came. Tino tried to come up with an explanation for his absence. Maybe Nico just wasn't a breakfast person? Tino had heard that some people were like that. But Nico would obviously be there for lunch.

At 9:00, Tino went to his Ancient Greek lesson with Annabeth. She seemed pleased that he had memorized the alphabet already, and had been using it to write his messages. He picked up the basic vocabulary and grammar quickly too. She praised him for being such a good learner. "You'll be fluent in no time!" she told him.

At 11:00, Tino went to his sword and shield lesson. He didn't know the instructor's name. He just handed Tino a wooden practice sword and told him to practice hitting a dummy while he gave the more experienced campers their instructions. He would get around to teaching Tino one-on-one as soon as that was done. An hour later, it was lunch time, and Tino was still hitting a dummy with a sword-shaped stick.

Tino waited for Nico at the table again. During lunch, he was even more aware of the looks the other campers were giving him. He once caught Will's eye. Will smiled and waved at him, but the rest of Apollo's children looked at him like he had gravely insulted them. They weren't the only ones, either. Nearly anyone who bothered to look at Tino looked wary of him. And once again, Nico didn't show up. He must not be a lunch person either, Tino thought, the chicken and olives he's just eaten sitting uncomfortably in his stomach. He'd show up for dinner though.

At 1:00, Tino went to his monster assault lesson. This class had a different instructor, but it went much the same way as sword and shield had. They handed Tino a play sword, told him to watch the other campers and wait for personal instruction that never came. Fifteen minutes before class ended, Tino just left the arena to find something to do. Nobody noticed his absence.

Tino returned to his cabin and sat in the shade on the porch, reading a book Annabeth had given him to practice reading in Greek. The book was a collection of short stories about the gods and old heroes, so it almost doubled as a history lesson. He read through several of the stories, including the death of Icarus, the ordeal of Orpheus, and the adventures of several other heroes. He liked one story in particular: the story of Hyacinthus. It was sad, yes, but he liked it all the same. Why? He wasn't sure. Perhaps the same reason he loved chicken nuggets: Just because.

After twenty minutes or so, other campers began wandering around in groups, all walking off to whichever activity they wanted to attend for free choice. Having had enough of being ignored by the instructors, Tino was tempted to duck inside the cabin and continue reading his book, but he was getting twitchy from being mostly idle all day, and he needed to move. For a moment, he contemplated going off into the woods and doing something by himself, but he didn't feel like getting yelled at again. He thought about the different activities he could join - today's selection included pegasus riding, arts and crafts, and archery - wondering if he'd be any good at any of them. The throngs of campers heading off to each activity made him even more hesitant to participate. Large groups were something Tino preferred to avoid, especially when it was clear that he wasn't wanted there.

Tino wondered if that was why Nico was gone. _Most campers think he's scary,_ Percy had told him, _People are frightened by Hades. He's Hades's son._ Maybe they felt the same way about him. When he put it together, he suddenly felt his bruises and cuts a lot more, even though most of them were almost completely healed now. Attending the lessons didn't sound very appealing anymore. Tino put his book down and stalked off in the opposite direction as the last few straggling campers, going unnoticed.

Tino stopped for a moment when he reached the edge of the woods. He'd been told off just the day before for going in there unarmed, since there were dangerous monsters in there for some reason. If they hadn't bothered him yesterday, how bad could they be? He looked up at the light filtering through the tall trees and watched a few birds flitting around and some squirrels leaping from branch to branch. Then just as he was about to look away and trek into the woods, a familiar green face appeared, peering down at him from a particularly thick branch.

"Soldatino?" Poppie sounded uncertain. Could she not see his face clearly from way up there or something? "What're you doing all the way over here? Aren't there lessons?" Tino gave a large nod. Poppie started climbing nimbly down the tree. "Shouldn't you be at a class, then?" Tino shrugged and looked down at a rock between his feet. Poppie's round green eyes widened. "Oh! You got lost, didn't you? And you're just too shy to say so, right?"

Tino sighed and opened his notebook. ' _No,'_ he scribbled, ' _I just don't want to go.'_

"What? Why not? Classes are fun!"

' _I don't want to be around everyone else. They don't like me.'_

"Why would you think that?" Poppie glanced at the ground then back at Tino. "It's because of your dad, isn't it?" She sounded sheepish.

' _You don't like me either.'_

"Yes I do!" Poppie protested, "You're really nice! It's just… I can't help being kinda scared of your dad."

' _So? I'm not my dad. You can be scared of him all you want, but that has nothing to do with me and Nico.'_

Poppie nodded slowly. "I know. It's unfair to judge you because of your dad. But you know, if you let all the people who _do_ judge you keep you away from your classes, you won't learn a lot of really important skills. And they won't learn to be not stupid." Tino snickered and Poppie grinned. "So which class do you want to go to? I'll go with you."

Tino decided archery sounded the best. The schedule had said Chiron would be teaching it, so he was hopeful that he wouldn't be completely ignored in that class. Tino and Poppie raced to the archery range, arriving just as class was beginning. The small children joined the line to get a bow and a quiver of arrows. The bows were almost as tall as Tino was.

Tino took his bow and found an unclaimed target to shoot at. Poppie took the target next to the right of his. Tino put his notebook down on the ground beside him and looked at the other archers to figure out what to do.

A bit down the range to his left was a camper he thought he recognized as one of Apollo's sons. Tino did his best to imitate the older boy's sturdy-looking stance. He pulled an arrow out of the quiver and held it to the string. He raised the bow and started to pull.

And the arrow fell off. Tino picked up the arrow and tried again.

And it fell off. With a grumble, Tino picked it up again and kept trying, only to grow increasingly frustrated every time his arrow would fall to the ground. After eleven tries, Tino gave an irritated squeal and considered snapping the annoying arrow in half.

"Do you need some help, Soldatino?" In Tino's fit of frustration, he hadn't noticed Chiron approaching.

Tino threw his arrow on the ground and sat down with a grumpy huff.

"There's no need to throw things," the centaur said kindly, "I see that you're frustrated, but it's only your first time using a bow, yes? Nobody is an ace archer the first time they try it."

Tino looked down the range and pouted. Every other target bristled with arrows. Many boasted numerous bulls-eyes. A boy a few rows over managed to shoot so accurately that he split another arrow in half. And Tino couldn't even nock one.

"Come on, on your feet. Don't give up so quickly. Show me what you've been doing, and we'll see how to help you improve." Tino made a face, but stood up nevertheless. He pulled out a new arrow and was about to try to nock it when Chiron stopped him. "Hold on. I think that bow is too strong for you. A smaller one would be much easier for you to use."

The boy looked insulted. "Don't get upset, Soldatino. Some bows will have to high of a draw weight for you to use until you train up and get stronger. It's principle that applies to every weapon you'll learn to use." Chiron reached out to take Tino's bow. "If you'll hand that to me, I'll get you a bow more suited to your size."

Tino stuck out his bottom lip and held the bow away from Chiron. He made an odd noise in his throat that sounded a bit like a squeaking cat guarding its toy.

Chiron retracted his hand. "If you insist," he conceded. "Please, continue." Chiron spend a few minutes helping the frustrated pipsqueak correct his stance and nock his arrows correctly. It turned out he hadn't noticed the notch at the end that would secure it to the bowstring, and had in fact been holding it completely wrong. Once held his weapons correctly, it felt a lot more natural. At Chiron's behest, Tino drew the bowstring back as far as he could.

It wasn't very far. Even pulling with all his strength, he could only pull it back a couple of inches at best. He struggled with it for a minute, straining to draw his bow further, but the bow was as stubborn as he was, and simply wouldn't budge. When his skinny arms began to shake from the effort, Tino released the string and returned the arrow to his quiver. Begrudgingly, he handed the bow to Chiron.

Chiron took the bow with a smile. "I'll be right back with a better one." The centaur trotted away. After a few minutes, Tino was starting to wonder if Chiron had forgotten him like all the other instructors. He sat down on the ground and grumpily tore up a leaf.

Just a few days ago, he'd been on the streets in a town he didn't know the name of, running from monsters who wanted to eat him. Then he was found and brought to the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood, and he thought maybe he would like it. Now he just wanted to go back to how things were. He hated the bullies. He hated the rules. He hated being ignored. Mom always said they would go somewhere safe and be happy forever. This wasn't that place. At least, he didn't think it was.

Hoofbeats interrupted Tino's growing irritation. "So sorry, Soldatino. It took a bit longer than I expected to find the right bow. Our lighter ones aren't used very often." Tino stood up and took the bow, surprised that Chiron had actually come back. "Go ahead and try it out. No need to be shy."

He raised the bow and nocked a new arrow, expecting to fail again. With just a little bit of effort, Tino could pull the string all the way back to his jaw. Chiron prompted him to take the shot. Tino let his first arrow fly, and it embedded itself in the second outermost ring of the target. He screeched, startling several other campers. Chiron observed the boy a little longer, but left to help his other students once he thought Tino no longer needed his supervision.

With the right bow, Tino found this archery business was actually a lot of fun, and it wasn't so hard once he got the hang of aiming. He still missed sometimes and couldn't hit the bull's eye yet, but he was improving quickly, even if his little arms were starting to hurt.

When 4:00 rolled around, Tino almost ignored the call to turn in his gear. He was having fun, and he wanted to get even better so he could show off to Nico after dinner. However, his arms were sore and his fingers numb, so he begrudgingly returned his weapons and went off to the beach with everyone else, while Poppie had to go help make dinner. On the way, Tino split off with a few other kids to stop by the cabins, but instead of changing into a swimsuit - he didn't have one anyway - he grabbed the story book he had been reading before archery. He glanced over at his brother's bed. All of Nico's belongings appeared untouched.

Tino followed the other campers down to the beach and promptly wove through the crowd of older kids and found a comfortable rock to sit on away from everyone else. He opened up his book and scrolled through the table of contents until he settled on the story of Koronis. He flipped to the beginning of the chapter and started reading, looking up on occasion to watch the yelling campers splashing around in the sound.

He was not quite sure how to feel by the end of the story. He disliked Koronis for betraying Apollo's trust, but he felt bad for both of them in the end. Koronis died and Apollo was left heartbroken and alone again. When it came to romance, poor Apollo just couldn't catch a break. Tino wanted to give the god a hug to make him feel better, but on second thought, hugging the sun might not be the best idea. It was a literal ball of fire, after all. Besides, maybe Apollo wasn't a fan of hugs.

Tino read a few more stories, then went up to the dining pavilion for dinner. The Nymphs were serving barbequed beef ribs with a wide assortment of colorful, tasty-looking vegetables. Tino piled his plate with meat, strawberries, olives, and other plants he didn't know the name of. On his way to his table, Tino threw a few particularly nice morsels into the central brazier, then sat down to eat. He gobbled down his food before it could get cold, but remained at the table long after he was finished, waiting for Nico to arrive.

He never showed.

* * *

This repeated for nearly two weeks. Tino would go to the classes he liked and skip the those where he was ignored. Every day, he would hope his brother would come back and every night, he would be disappointed when he went to bed. On the last day of August, Tino got his first camp bead on a cord like everyone else had. The next day, the campers with families got to go home.

Tino sat in the grass by the brazier in the field reading a book. It had become something of a habit for him. The ground was quite comfortable and the fire was pleasantly warm. In one hand, he held the most recent book he'd borrowed from Annabeth, a simplified version of the Iliad. With his other hand, he fiddled with the bead on his new necklace. When the beads were handed out, some people cried. Tino didn't understand why until he asked Will about it, and he told him about the war that had concluded only a couple of months prior. They had won, but a lot of people lost friends, and this summer's bead had the names of the dead painted on them.

None of the names on the bead meant anything to Tino. It felt strange to him to carry a memorial to people he never knew, and he wondered whether or not he should actually be wearing it.

Most of the campers left earlier that day. Only a few stragglers remained, half of which would be returned to their families in the following week. The rest lived at camp full-time. Before now, it hadn't crossed Tino's mind that there were other kids here who had nowhere else to go. Part of him found it comforting that he wasn't the only one, but it also made him want his mom even more. He wanted to have her there at Camp Half-Blood with him. He considered asking Chiron if he could spend the off-season searching for her to bring her back. Or he could just go.

While Tino read in the grass, the sky turned dark and the moon rose over the sea. Once he noticed, he closed his book, stretched a bit, and headed back to the cabin for the night. Tino flicked on the lights and yelped when he saw Nico sitting on his bed untying his boots.

Nico was blinded momentarily but still smiled just a little. "Oh, hey Tino. You doing okay?"

Tino tore off his sneaker and chucked it at his brother.

Nico dodged and flinched at the loud smack the shoe made when it hit the wall. "Woah! Tino, what the hell?"

' _Where were you?!'_ Tino signed, wishing he were capable of yelling.

To the younger boy's surprise, Nico needed no written translation. "I'm sorry, Tino. I was gone longer than I thought I'd be. I should have checked in." Nico yanked his boot off and kicked it under the bed. "My- Our father had a job for me, and… well, one thing led to another." Tino stomped over to his own bed and cocooned himself in his blanket. Nico sighed. "Tino, really, I'm sorry. I should have said something to you before running off. It's… Older siblings shouldn't run off on their little brothers like that. It wasn't cool of me." Tino pretended to be asleep. "Tino?" Nico flopped back on his bed. "Would it make you feel better if I said our father wants to meet you?"

Tino flung his blanket off, and for just a moment thought Nico was bluffing to get a reaction from him.

"He said he wanted me to bring you down when I got back, so we can go in the morning-"

' _Let's go now.'_

Nico made a face. "You sure? The Underworld is a bit… And our father can be… Challenging."

' _Yeah, I want to go now.'_

"If you insist. Grab a jacket and put your shoe back on. It's a bit chilly in the Underworld." Tino zipped up his worn-out denim jacket and clumsily tied the shoe he'd thrown. Once he was ready to go, Nico awkwardly grabbed his hand. "I'm gonna warn you now, you're probably not gonna like Shadow Travel. But just hang onto my hand and you'll be fine, okay?"

Tino nodded excitedly and the brothers disappeared into the shadows to meet with the lord of the Underworld.


	6. Asphodel

Nico and Tino appeared in the Underworld with a bit of a jolt. Nico, of course, was used to it and had no trouble staying on his feet, but Tino was unprepared for Shadow Traveling and immediately fell back on his butt. "Well, this is the Underworld." Nico pointed at various places off in the distance. "The river behind us is the Styx - don't touch it or you'll die - and over there is the River Lethe. Don't touch that one either. It'll erase your whole mind. Don't touch any of the rivers, actually. Down that way is the entrance to the Fields of Asphodel. Over that was is are the Fields of Punishment - I won't take you there - and past Asphodel is Elysium. And that big palace in the distance is where our father lives." From their place on a hill, Nico could see Cerberus menacing the spirits in line to be judged and processed. "You ready to go down and meet him?" Nico turned around and had to do a double take. Tino was curled up in a ball on the ground with his chin quivering and tears starting to trickle down his cheek. "Oh gods, Tino, are you okay?"

Tino whimpered and rubbed the tears off his face, then wrote in the dirt, ' _That was scary.'_

Nico bent down and helped his little brother to his feet. "I'm so sorry Tino. I should've warned you before shadow travelling with you." He repeated his apology like a mantra, dusting Tino off and awkwardly patting his shoulder in hopes that it would calm him down. "I'm definitely not batting a hundred when it comes to being a big brother, am I?"

Tino sniffled and blinked a few times, then looked up at Nico with his face scrunched up as though he were struggling to read something.

"Haven't you heard that phrase before?" Tino shook his head. "'Batting a hundred' is like… like getting an A." Tino kept staring with the same look on his face. "Right. You never went to school. An A is the best grade. It means you did good. Same with the other phrase. Get it now?"

Tino's face unscrunched itself and his gaze unfocused for a moment while he processed the new vocabulary. The dial-up internet tone played in the back of Nico's mind. After a few seconds, reloaded and he nodded, looking pleased. He seemed to have completely forgotten he was upset just a few moments ago.

"You wanna get going?"

Tino nodded and hummed in agreement. As he followed his brother down the hill, small, sharp black stones skittered out from beneath his battered sneakers. Nico glanced behind a few times to make sure Tino didn't slip or wander off, but was pleased to see the pipsqueak contentedly plodding along, completely unfazed by the land of the dead. He actually appeared quite at ease, unlike most people upon entering the Underworld. Of course, most new entrants to the Underworld aren't there by choice.

When the boys reached the bottom of the hill, Tino made a sound of surprised glee and rushed past his brother. For just a moment, Nico was content to allow the small boy to run loose, as long as he remained in sight. But then he saw where he was going. The little idiot was running straight towards Cerberus. Nico called out to his brother to stop, but either the kid didn't hear him or was purposefully ignoring him. Nico chased after him, stumbling a bit over rocks and loose gravel. "Tino, come back!" he shouted, "That's Cerberus! He'll eat you!"

If he could hear him, Tino paid him no mind and continued bounding towards the three-headed dog like a young deer across a field, crossing the unstable rocky terrain as though he were born to it. "Tino, stop running!" Nico tried again as his brother ran closer and closer to the canine behemoth, "Please, he is not a puppy you should be playing with!"

When Tino got close enough to catch the dog's attention, Cerberus leapt at him with his jaws open wide. Nico was sure that was the end of his new brother. But when he finally caught up, Tino was hugging Cerberus's nose, being licked and nuzzled by the enormous dog. "Unbelievable," Nico caught his breath and did his best to appear calm as he approached his brother and their father's dog. "So… You like dogs?" he nodded with a wide grin. "Well, you should say bye to Cerberus for now. We need to get down to the palace to meet our father, remember?" Tino pouted, but his whine was drowned out by the dog's. "We can come back and play with him later, alright? He's not going anywhere." Tino huffed and patted Cerberus's muzzle, then followed his brother towards the gates to the Fields of Asphodel. Cerberus brayed after the boys as though he were asking his new friend to stay.

Nico and Tino walked slowly through the silent black grass of Asphodel. Tino kept reaching down and smacking the long blades to see if they would rustle, but they remained silent as the grave. "Hm."

Nico almost leapt out of his skin hearing Tino make a noise. "Something wrong?"

' _Weird grass. Where's the flowers?'_

"What flowers?"

Tino closed his eyes and thought for a second. He began spelling out, ' _A-S-S-F-O-'_

"The Asphodel?" Tino nodded. "There isn't any, actually. Kind of a misnomer, now that I think of it." Tino made a disapproving noise in his throat and Nico looked down at him. "Were you hoping the fields would be full of asphodel?"

' _Yes,'_ Tino signed, ' _They were mom's favorite flower.'_

The boys carried on through the grass and the ghosts towards the palace. The deathly silence didn't bother Nico, and Tino didn't seem to mind it either. On the contrary, he appeared quite content with everything he'd seen so far, apart from the lack of flowers. He fell behind sometimes on account of his short little legs, but a quick jog would bring him back up to his older brother's side. The boy stared at the ghosts as he walked past them, much like how he might watch a lizard in hopes that it would move. He waved his hand in front of a few of the ghosts' faces and seemed confused when they didn't respond.

"They aren't gonna move, Tino," Nico told his brother, "Some of them might talk on occasion, but they're all lost in their own minds. They can't even see us."

' _They're all like that?'_

"Pretty much, yeah."

' _Seems sad.'_

"That's Asphodel for you. A neutral life gets… Well, this. Reliving your life endlessly, unaware of what's happening around you."

Tino hummed thoughtfully. He looked up at Hades's palace. It was a lot more imposing up close, but Tino kind of liked it.

He was thinking about what it was that he liked when a ghost a few meters to the side spoke, "Don't look, baby." Tino froze. "Don't look at them."

Nico didn't notice for a few steps. When he realized he didn't hear his brother's footsteps anymore, he turned to see what was holding him up. Tino was staring at the ghost of a sandy-haired woman, looking like he'd been electrocuted. "Tino? You okay?"

Tino didn't seem aware of his brother's presence. Instead of responding, he approached the ghost.

She kept talking, and all of the color in Tino's face drained away. "I need you to be brave for me," she said, "Good boy."

Tino made a sound like he was drowning. Nico shook his shoulder trying to snap him out of it. "Tino! What's wrong? Look at me!"

"I'll see you again."

Nico could swear he heard something shatter in the moment before Tino started screaming. Nico grabbed his brother and tried to pull him away, but Tino kicked and thrashed to get out of his grip. He reached out for the blond ghost, begging with tearful shrieks for her to come to him.

"Tino, stop fighting me! Calm down!" Nico felt a sudden sharp pain in his hand and dropped Tino with a yelp. Tino scrambled to the ghost woman while Nico regained his bearings. He hadn't expected Tino to bite him, especially that hard. There would be bruises there later, he was certain.

Tino wrapped his arms around the ghost, crying and shaking her to get her attention. She remained in her memories, just like everyone around her.

Nico approached Tino and put a hand on his shoulder. "Tino, stop. This won't do any good." Tino refused and buried his face in the ghost's faded coat. "Please listen to me, Tino. She can't hear you. Let go." Tino sobbed harder. "Let go, Tino."

Eventually, Tino did let go. He didn't protest when his brother picked him up and carried him away. He hid his eyes in Nico's jacket and cried his little heart out. Nico turned to look at the ghost just once more. He was sure his eyes were fooling him, but for just a moment she seemed lucid, watching the boys leave with a small smile on her face.

"Goodbye, baby."


	7. Meet the Family

_Author's Note:_ _Sorry._

* * *

Tino had quieted down by the time they reached the palace walls. Nico wasn't sure if that was a good thing. He was still carrying his brother, and the poor boy hadn't moved a muscle since he'd stopped crying. While it wasn't the most enjoyable thing to have a child screaming in his ear, the lack of movement was concerning.

The dead guards let the boys through the gates without a word. Nico carried Tino through their stepmother's garden and set him down when they'd entered the grand foyer. Tino's legs crumpled beneath him and slumped to the ground. He stared blankly at the empty air in front of him. Nico knelt down in front of Tino and gently shook his shoulder.

"Tino? Are you okay?" Tino shook his head slowly. "That was your mom back there, wasn't it?" Tino sniffled and his lip began to quiver again. Nico hugged his brother as he cried. "I'm so sorry, Tino." One of Hades's nameless servants tapped Nico's attention and informed him that their father awaited the boys in the throne room. Nico waved him away and focused on consoling Tino. Hades could wait.

He did his best to calm Tino down at least a little bit, drawing from his memories of Bianca hugging him, rubbing his back, and singing to him whenever he got upset as a little kid. Singing wasn't exactly Nico's forte, but he could do the rest. It took a while, but Tino eventually settled down enough to at least breathe properly again. Nico pulled away and gave his brother a moment to wipe the tears off his cheeks with his tiny orange t-shirt.

"Do you want to do this today?" Nico asked. "If you're not up to meeting our father right now, I can take you back to camp and I'll explain everything to him."

"Explain what to whom?"

Nico swore under his breath and stood up as he turned. "Good evening, Father."

Hades gave his older son a small nod of acknowledgment, "Nico." The god tilted his head to peer behind Nico. One of his eyebrows twitched slightly and his mouth formed a hard line. "Am I to assume that's my other son?"

Nico sighed and gently prompted Tino to his feet. He didn't resist, but he stood more listlessly than most of the ghosts in the Underworld. "Father, this is Soldatino, my younger brother."

Hades looked over his younger son with his eternally stony gaze. Tino continued to stare blankly at the mosaic on the floor, although it was anyone's guess if he was actually seeing it. Tino didn't seem to notice the tears beginning to trickle down his cheeks again. The muscles in Hades's face shifted into a look of disapproval.

"I expected more."

Tino's shoulders went rigid and his head jerked, but slumped back down before he came anywhere close to eye contact with Hades. Nico felt his chest tighten and his nails dig into his palms. "Father," he growled through a clenched jaw, "A word?" With an air of reluctance, Hades nodded and stalked through an archway into another room. Nico squeezed Tino's shoulder. "I'll deal with this, Tino. Forget what he said." He knew the damage was done, though. The kid looked like he'd been frozen the moment after being punched in the gut. It was painful enough to see his distress, but Nico knew exactly what Tino was feeling.

Nico stormed after his father and as soon as he was within earshot, he hissed, "How could you say that to him?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're his father! You know nothing about him, yet the moment you see him, you write him off like yesterday's trash? What's wrong with you?"

Hades snarled, "How _dare_ you speak to me in such a manner?"

"Look, I know you don't think much of me, _Father_ ," Nico pointed to the archway, "But that is my little brother out there. _Your son._ Do you think I would stand by and let you say something like that to him? How could you?"

"I don't need another whimpering pup for a son, Nico," Hades said coldly, "I need a proper soldier. A potential hero."

"He's six years old! You can't expect Tino to be some stone-hearted soldier when he's just a little kid who found out ten minutes ago that his mom died!"

For a moment, Hades's face slackened and he seemed to lose his words. "He just found out?"

Nico narrowed his eyes. "You knew she was dead?"

"Of course I knew. I didn't realize _he_ didn't."

"He's a six-year-old _child_!" Nico argued, "Of course he didn't know she died! No kid his age is going to assume their missing parents are dead!"

Hades groaned, "Alright, I concede. I _may_ have made an improper judgment given the circumstances. Even so, I maintain my wish for-"

"A strong child like Bianca. I know. You only remind me every time you see me."

"Mind your tongue, Nico. I've just about had it with your attitude."

"My apologies, _Father_ ," Nico gave his father a mock bow. "Look, you can judge me and compare me to my sister all you want. But don't you assume Tino's some mewling weakling just because he's a little kid. He survived on his own for over a year. Even a lot of older demigods can't do that. He's plenty 'strong'."

Hades thought in silence for a moment. "I see your point. I take back what I said. I'll reserve judgment on your brother until he's had time to prove himself. Let's rejoin… what did you call him?"

" _Di Immortales_ , you can't even remember your own son's name?"

Hades glared at Nico. "Watch yourself, boy. Keep in mind that I've only just met him. Unlike _your_ childhood, I wasn't present in his life until now."

Icily, Nico growled, "His name is Soldatino. Remember it."

Father and son returned to the foyer. Tino had finally moved on his own, which was good. He was sitting on the floor, curled up into a ball with his forehead on his knees in the corner behind a pillar, which was not so good. Nico crossed the foyer, crouched beside Tino and tried to comfort him, but just like before, he didn't respond. "Come on, Tino. Let's go back to camp. Some sleep would do you good."

"Actually, boys," Hades interrupted, "I must insist that you stay a while longer."

Nico shot his father a sharp glare out of the corner of his eye much like the ones Hades himself was known to give. "The get-to-know-yous can wait, Father. I think Tino is exhausted enough as it is."

"I agree, but I don't believe it would be wise to leave without paying proper respects to my wife."

Nico thought for a moment. "He's not in a state to handle her tonight."

"Do you really wish for your brother to face additional animosity from her?"

"Just tell her we weren't here. I'll take responsibility and give her an offering or something."

"It's a bit late for that, di Angelo."

Nico stood and turned to face his resentful stepmother as she entered the foyer. He did his best to block Tino from Persephone as he bowed to her, but he suspected it was a futile effort.

"That's your new one, is it?" she said to Hades, loud enough there was no way the boys wouldn't hear. With an unimpressed huff, she stalked off down a corridor. "A meal has been prepared. Come."

Unless you had a deathwish or an intense desire to be turned into a random plant, there was no refusing a goddess. Albeit with quite a bit of resistance - or perhaps merely a lack of cooperation - Nico managed to coerce Tino to his feet and get him plodding along behind Persephone. They were led to a dining room, already set for the whole "family". At the goddess's command, the boys sat down. A few silent servants served all four of them nectar and ambrosia, as well as some normal food for the two demigods. They all ate in silence for quite a while except for Tino, who just stared blankly at the plate in front of him. Nico glanced at him from time to time to make sure he was still okay. Well, as okay as he could be.

Eventually, Persephone broke the silence. "What's wrong with the small one? Doesn't he move?"

"He's suffered a bit of a shock today, my dear," Hades said, "It's probably best to give him some space while he works through it."

"What could be so awful? Every prayer he's ever had has been answered. He even got to see his mother again." Tino's eyes twitched to look at Persephone. She took a sip of her nectar. "Oh, that got your attention. Not quite what you had in mind, was it? It was inevitable, really. The Fates are rarely kind to people like your mother who don't know their place."

"Persephone…" Hades warned.

"That's just what happens when you're a common wh-"

"Persephone!" Hades shouted and slammed his fist, startling everyone in the room. "Have some tact. You can either show Soldatino some damn compassion, or you can leave this table." Nico and Persephone stared at him for a minute. He rarely ever lost his temper, even for a moment.

Persephone pursed her lips and straightened her shoulders. "My apologies, _my dear husband_ ," she said, her voice clipped, "Pardon my rudeness."

Hades turned to his sons and said quietly to Nico, "I'm sorry about this. I think it's long past time you took your brother home. I suggest informing Chiron about what happened tonight so he can be ready to help your brother if needed."

Nico nodded. "Goodnight, Father." He stood and picked Tino up. He walked out of the room and through a shadow, leaving Hades and Persephone alone in the dining room.

* * *

"Are you pleased, Persephone?"

"I still can't believe you had another child."

Hades groaned. "It's been six years. Can't you let it go? You know what the circumstances were."

"You could have refused her."

"Persephone-"

"You _should_ have refused her. Have you forgotten about that stupid oath you made with your brothers?"

Hades glared and took a bite of ambrosia. "Ah, yes, you mean that oath they _both_ broke?"

"Yes. The one _you_ were still bound to when _that one_ was born."

"You know very well I could _not_ have said no to Soldatino's mother. Suzanna and I had a bargain. I made a promise, and I had to keep it."

"By breaking another? How honorable."

"That oath was long since dead. If my brothers would not hold themselves to it, I had no reason to either."

Persephone crossed her arms and huffed. "Regardless, you let her talk you into breaking a sacred oath. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe _that_ was why the stupid woman died? Whenever gods break oaths, the punishment usually goes to those close to them."

"Please. Why would it go to Suzanna? We had _one_ deal. That's not grounds for-"

"I didn't say it went to _Suzanna_ , Hades. I could practically smell the curse of misfortune on that boy. He's going to suffer because of you."

"The punishment for breaking a sacred oath is death. A life was paid. It's done."

She shook her head. "I doubt it. Something wasn't right. There's something wrong with that child."

"I know you're never fond of my children, Persephone, but-"

"I'm not trying to be spiteful, Hades. When he looked at me… I don't know. Something was off. His eyes reminded me of someone, though I can't quite put my finger on who."

Hades shrugged. "Probably me. The family resemblance is typically quite strong, you know."

Persephone gave her husband a sharp look. "It's not you. Perhaps one of your previous children. You've had more than your share of bad apples."

Reluctantly, Hades agreed. "You're not wrong." He took a drink from his cup. "Look, I won't ask you to think fondly about Suzanna. _I_ don't think all that fondly of her. But don't take your frustrations out on Soldatino. You know he's blameless in all of this."

Persephone sighed, "I know. I'll do my best to be at least civil. I genuinely didn't mean to be quite so rude earlier, you know. It might've helped if you told me they were coming."

"In my defense, I didn't think they would come so late at night."

"Hm. Fair enough. By the way, I've been wondering, since when was he called Soldatino? I seem to recall telling me Suzanna had named him something else entirely. What was it again?"

"Doesn't matter anymore. For one reason or another, he's chosen a new name. I don't know why, but Soldatino is the name he uses now. I have no complaints."

"Whatever you say, my dear." Persephone finished her cup of nectar. "I just wish I could figure out what's so odd about that boy."

* * *

Nico and Tino reappeared in their cabin. The second round of Shadow Travel went much smoother than the first, fortunately. No bouts of frightened crying. Although, Nico suspected Tino couldn't cry anymore even if it _had_ scared him. He carried his brother over to his bed and set him down. Without acknowledging anything, Tino pulled his blanket up over his head and rolled over. Nico wasn't surprised. At least he wasn't trying to kill anyone with skeleton monsters like Nico had. Nico shuddered. That hadn't been his _best_ day.

He left Tino alone to fall asleep and checked the time. It turned out they'd been in the Underworld much longer than it had seemed, and there was less than an hour left until sunrise. Nico decided to let Tino sleep and left the cabin. He figured someone would be awake up at the Big House, and if not, he could wait for Chiron to wake up so he could let him know about their misadventure. Tino was going to need some help to cope with his loss, and Nico knew he wasn't equipped to handle it properly. He only hoped the old centaur would know what to do.

As the sun began to rise and the first traces of light began trickling through the cabin windows, Tino laid in his bed, silent, still, and awake. The ghost of his mother was burned into his eyes. She looked exactly the same as the last time he saw her alive. He was such an idiot. Mom would never leave him alone for so long. She would never let him go off on his own like that if she was ever coming back to him. He should have known she was dead. She said she would see him again. She'd lied to him. The last thing she'd said to him was a lie. A lie to get him to run away. A lie so she could stay behind and die. She died protecting him from those monsters. She died for him. She wouldn't have died if it wasn't for him. His mom was dead.

And it was all his fault.


End file.
